thurst44

Ooooor not!

Jerry Tillery Anthony Johnson (ok, probably homer here, but suspect he'll be something special) Dalton Risner Drew Sample Tytus Howard Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (but that's probably more influenced by wanting to hear a lot of Being There/Chance The Gardner references)

Dru Samia Anthony Johnson

I'm sorry. I was talking to a friend who runs an airline support company last week and he told me about how Trump tried to hire him and he decided not to join, but friends in the industry who did had their lives ruined.

Where is that vomit emoji. Man, I grew up in NYC (family from Buffalo, went to college there) and I'm trying to stay out of the politics here, but wow, can I apolitically say this guy has always made me queasy going back to when I was a kid?

Sounds even more plausible knowing what we know now about all the 2016 FB posts running around.

Highly doubt they release Shady as he's still there for a reason -- mostly leadership, but also that maybe he still CAN cut on a dime and add value to an offensive line that is mostly assembled to keep Josh upright. While cutting him saves a decent amount of cap space, they are already so far below cap that it's hard to see them suddenly worrying about that now. I don't think there's zero chance they release him. If he looks terrible in camp, one of his many off-field questions catches up to him, and/or Murphy works better behind the line or Ford or Wade proves to be special, they may test to see if they can get anything for him and if not, release him. Don't think signing Yeldon will have much to do with that though. Been thinking the same. Getting ready to watch this draft feels more chill than most as the air of desperation seems gone. Plus, I feel more faith in this GM & coach than I have in awhile that if they do pick a headscratcher at 9, it'll be easier to rationalize (admittedly, I do always rationalize.

It works perfectly with the idea of bringing in offensive linemen whose strength is pass protection -- have RBs who are smart and experienced and can do more than their blockers, and who are also good pass catchers to improve Allen's short game. Love it!

Why would you have wanted to get rid of an RB with 1500-1600 total yards behind a mediocre o-line. Two years ago, he was coming off a season where he was averaging 5.4 ypc. I guess if you thought you could get max value (or you were worried about the stories), it makes sense, but I don't really get why you would be so hot to get rid of a guy coming off one of the best seasons for an RB. And, you could say b/c of last year, but he was an integral part of the season we made the playoffs, when he was a top 10 yardage back.

It's mostly a cavalcade of mediocrity with 2001 and 2007 (and 2009 after the obvious first pick swing-and-huge-miss) as decent drafts. I'll be honest, I don't see the 2010 draft as "pathetic" as you do. C.J. Spiller never fulfilled pick 9, but he was an expected top 10 pick and did have at least one star season at a skill position. Torell Troup was an absolute head scratcher even at the time, though. Carrington had his moments (mostly blocking kicks), but was definitely not worth a 3rd. Marcus Easley would have been a good value if he didn't have the worst luck staying healthy. Ed Wang was a bad pick at the time and proved to be. Arthur Moats had his moments and at least played as well as you expect a 6th round pick to play. The rest did nothing, but most late day 3 picks don't do much. I do agree that they have been a below average drafting team, and that the last two drafts have been very hopeful.

I live a few towns over from Met Life Stadium, so definitely going to games 1 & 2. Also talking with some friends from college days about meeting up at either Cleveland or Tennessee game.

Went into this one intending to trade up, and yet...and when Chance the Gardener dropped, I had to take him...all will be well in the garden!

It's waaaaaay too early for this, but this does make us look good as both our 1st round picks are still 1st round (one higher, one lower) as is one of our UDFAs!

I'm in Belleville, and was in Kearny until last year (so maybe a little farther than 5 miles), but was in Rutherford briefly before that -- walked home from the 48-28 game. I've been to Duffy's once -- oddly enough it was the Monday night Pats game where they almost won but they kept the clock running on Watkins after he went out of bounds ending the last chance for a comeback. I loved it (perfectly divey and neighborhoody), but that night was the only Bills fan there, but got the rest of the bar into it (and bartender had a leftover shirt). Has it been livelier lately? I usually go into the city a few times a year to Calico's (one day is covered by a friend's generous father who comes in from Buffalo and buys everyone wristbands), but mostly watch on Direct Ticket. Had a good time at Abbey's in Jersey City with the JC Bills Backers watching the playoff game, even if the game itself was a dud -- not too crowded, but enough passionate fans to make it fun. I was thinking of going to there or to Duffy's to watch the draft if they were doing anything.

Ha, see, I'm the opposite here. This feels like one hell of a way to start the season. My only worry is that they are both home openers, so being semi-employed plus freelance right now, this might price them way out of my range (well, more incentive to get back to full-time).

As someone who lives about 5 miles from MetLife, my eyes are WIDE open.

As weird as it seems to say this given how their games have been excruciatingly bad enough to build national stories around, I'm kind of surprised this is not a night game with the storyline of star-crossed football teams with high-ceiling Year 2 QBs.

This ^^ It's not my favorite choice as it seems like a reach, and I love Beane's stated mission of freeing himself to take the BPA which would make me think defense (and there's some nice last pieces of the defense that have a decent chance of being available at 9), but it could also be Beane's top player on the board, and if so, I trust his judgment.

Ha, when I saw this header, I thought it might be you. Personally, I love all your posts and the cross-fandom bonhomie (but I've also always had a soft-spot for the Packers), and was absolutely baffled and embarrassed by all the hostility from posters in your thread from a couple days ago. You have no reason to apologize, and I, for one, hope you continue to post. Either way, hope you are enjoying your off-season, otherwise.

I getcha, but given the last two years, I think that picking at 9 is the LEAST likely scenario... which also makes it the... most likely? Ok, I'm just gonna tune in in 12 days and find out

Ha, that's the thing tho. QBs are almost never going to be the BPA at any point since, due to the position's value, they will necessarily be overdrafted.

Exactly, it's not necessarily the right plan, but to argue there's no plan is strange. This off-season is one of the most obviously planned ones (and a pretty clever one at that) i've ever seen. You have a young QB who in his rookie year proved he's worth giving a real shot, so you get a bunch of experienced linemen, all of whom have been better pass-blockers than run-blockers, and sign them to contracts you can escape from within a year so you can do your due diligence and find the best five starters and three backups to give Allen the best chance to succeed, plus you also get fast, deep threat receivers since your QB has one of the stronger arms in history. They still have the sixth most salary cap space in the league and top ten next year (and many ways to free up money if some of these guys don't work). Will it work? We'll see. But it's about as definitive a plan as I've seen from this team in my lifetime -- or at least since the 80s when I was first starting to follow them.

9 wins sounds like the median to me, Vegas be damned, but feels like with Allen it could break either way. If Allen is for real, then he should have much more time and more weapons to succeed, so with this defense, the ridiculous 14-2 above is not impossible. Nor is a disastrous 3-13 season if his inaccuracy is chronic and unfixable. That Allen went 5-5 in full games with so little help makes me hopeful. That his misses were often shorter passes makes me wonder if there's a chance he could be prone to yips. Either way, the Bills are one of the most objectively interesting teams in the league (signing six offensive linemen with significant starting experience when you have a second year potential franchise QB is kind of a baller move)

Yep. I called The Coach's show on the day Flutie was signed b/c it annoyed me that he was attacking a guy so mean-spiritedly before he even got there -- mostly because, if memory serves, he had another player on and was trying to get him to say bad things about Flutie. I started to say something silly about how anyone with a ruler can see how tall he is, what matters is he's won games in the NFL and maybe should not be run out of football." -- but he hung up on me pretty fast. At the time I was working at a record store on Main St. while in college, but within weeks would be out of Buffalo.

If I don't have a hot take in that thread it was because I was too furious to post at the time. By the time they traded up for Edmunds, I was OK with it (i.e. well, we got another first round pick anyway). It was less than a week later that I admitted there's a good chance I was very wrong about Allen. And it wasn't just rationalization or rallying around our guy. I liked his interviews, that he had the highest Wonderlic, heard that he was the leader of the QBs at the combine. By training camp, I wanted him to start this year. Now, I'm tentatively giddy. It's not a definite, but he's an exciting player, and his ceiling is remarkable.