thurst44

I hear your logic on this, but there's a value to continuity, something McDermott asserted yesterday. Undervaluing the importance of Poyer in this defense would go against "the process" as far as I interpret it. Part of "the process" is building a family that pushes each other to another level.

There's a very clear problem with this theory. He went to the Raiders: 1). Who have been an even worse team 2). There isn't even an official QB for the Raiders right now, as most seem to feel that Carr is a goner. Is the possibility of Kyler Murray -- or another one of a QB class that's got a reputation for being mediocre at best -- really that much better than a rookie QB who went 5-5 in full games with an awful surrounding cast? Or even if you think Carr is staying, while granted his rep is surely better than Allen for most experts around the league, is he really an attraction for a WR? (honestly, the impression of Allen's rep would seem to more be polarizing than bad -- which does not disprove your theory) I'm not saying you're wrong; I'm just saying while you suggest you KNOW what's going through AB's mind, you really don't. You may have intuited correctly, but we can never truly know. It still doesn't explain why he's pathologically attacking the team waaaaay after the fact. Yes, who cares, but it's still pretty messed up.

This is a bit of a straw man as I don't know that anyone is arguing whether he has the right to not go to Buffalo. Personally, I lived in Buffalo and left -- and for most of the time, if I had a choice of a job in my field (not that i really have a "field" per se) in NYC or Buffalo, I'd choose NYC. Lately, we've talked about moving to WNY, but that's mostly b/c I've been doing part-time, we're not really taking advantage of NYC anyway, and prices here are exhausting. If I were a football player, I'd like to think I'd pick Buffalo b/c of the community vibe and adulation of fans, but who knows, and unless I stumble upon a reverse Zoltar machine, I'm pretty sure that will never be a scenario :). The issue in this thread is his incessant need to rag on the town, team, and fanbase -- all this after he pretty much won and got all he wanted -- the team, the contract, and everything. It's bizarre, and while we should have a thick skin, it's just plain dumb.

If he doesn't, it will change in a year.

Ha, cool. I rarely have seen people on highway. Once was cut off by a guy on the approach to the GW Bridge and road raged for a second, then saw the Bills flag and immediately cooled down. In the last couple weeks, have had two interactions. Saw a guy in Bills jacket and hat walking into a Bloomfield 7-Eleven and yelled "Go Bills!" at him and he smiled. A couple days ago, I was leaving the building where I work at a University in Jersey City, and saw a Bills vest under the guy's jacket and I pavlovianly (rudely) pointed "Hey Bills"...he bemusedly smiled. Weirdest place I ever saw Bills gear was on a 20-something blonde woman in Arizona. I went up to pay with my then fiancee and looked over and saw Bills shirt. It got a bit misconstrued and for a few miles I got the silent treatment from fiancee (she knew I'm a huge Bills fan -- in the years since she's even ordered gear for our dog). I mean, c'mon, what are the odds?!?!

Don't think it necessarily means that. In the current passing league, it's wise to have as many stout CBs as possible; the third and fourth (and even fifth) CBs will play an integral part in the team's success. This secondary is likely to be pretty fearsome this year (and it was already the top secondary in football last year).

He's clearly a miserable human being to pile on. Or maybe he means it as a friendly joke. In any case, while it could work out if they keep Carr and draft well, it looks more like a train wreck to me. He's gonna need luck, and, frankly, I don't wish him it. Also, he's making his choice to drag one of the best fanbases in the NFL online while going to a team that is deserting its own hometown for a city that might not even care.

I would not be very upset with it, but the best I would say about it is it's "fine"

I was essentially born into Bills fandom, but in New York City. My whole family was from Buffalo area: my dad in Lockport, my mom in Kenmore. My dad, uncle, and aunt were all fans going back to 1960, and all moved to NYC at some point in the 1970s. In 1980, at 7 years old, I remember being in a car and the Bills were on, and I asked my aunt (who I idolized) a bunch of questions about them and got excited and then and there decided I was Bills for life, to the point when I was lost in the woods at age 12 in Western New Jersey (at the sort of camp who would lose kids in the woods) and all I cared about was that I heard Kelly was going to sign and hoping my Walkman's batteries would survive just long enough so I could hear it (they did, I did). If there was any doubt of permanence, I wound up going to UB and my first game was 51-3. My aunt sadly never got to see them win (but she did get, against all odds, to see the Red Sox win, staying lucid long enough -- by one day -- to see their 2013 victory), my uncle and dad still have a chance (although my dad is half-hearted). I have missed very few games since coming back to NYC area in 1998, going to Bills bars and in the last years having DirecTV Sunday Ticket. My wife has got into them, not to a superfan level, but enough that she has bought multiple jerseys for our dog.

If you don't remember history, you are ... something something something.

Darius Philon intrigues me, run-stuffer with 4 sacks last year, still just 25, might not be too expensive and would add to nice rotation (which could get even better with Oliver or other top draftee).

Sorry if this posted earlier, but was right underneath a 5 hour old tweet that definitively said he was going to Jets for precise amount of money, and it made me laugh.

Fair enough, but if our fans can't convince them and that's their determining factor, not sure I want them in Buffalo anyway (and i gotta get back to eating these deliciously sour apples :))

They do realize that if you sign with a team, you don't use the "visitors locker room," right?

Then re-sign Deonte Thompson and trade back into first round to pick Alabama safety Deionte Thompson.

Would two late round picks really get them all the way to 1 (oh, and Carr? hmmm, ok, maybe). If they could pull that off and get a pass rusher AND a QB, that would be impressive and I'd be willing to doff my cap to them and admit Gruden's plan might have some logic, although Kyler Murray feels like one hell of a precarious ledge to lay your hat and hopes on.

My other has been mentioned, but for the record: trading up and getting a second great first rounder and still having a pick in every round of 2019 draft. Trading up and getting your potential franchise quarterback and somehow winding up with another first round pick, let alone a mid-first round pick is truly remarkable. If Allen and Edmunds play anywhere near their potential and there were a lot of positive signs this year, this will be legendary.

Frankly, I'm a bit tired of this mentality. They had almost the #1 defense last year, a lot of people at key positions heading towards their prime, and a lot of money to spend in free agency. If they get sign three good o-linemen, trade for Julio, and sign a pass rusher (this is before the draft -- where at worse we gave up a pick), why can't they be a contender this year? Teams make fast jumps all the time in this league. I'd argue that a great WR could help Allen progress. They can pay Julio and still easily have enough cap space to pick up linemen (and probably a few more players), and still have money going forward to extend White, Milano, Edmunds, Allen, etc. if/when the times come.

Agreed on the first part, except on the second part I don't quite have the clarity you do on his endgame (but then he has, what, 8 more years to accomplish it): the Bills would always get grilled pre-Allen with people saying something to the effect: "it's all about QB in the NFL." Does anyone here truly believe that Kyler Murray (or anyone in this draft) is a lock to do well in the NFL? Perhaps trading Carr is all smoke, but if so, why all the bluster and intrigue. Brown makes a lot more sense for the Bills than the Raiders given that the Bills have a QB who is in his second year and may benefit from having a reliable, elite WR for the next two to three years to mask early accuracy issues. This only makes any sense to me if they are keeping Carr -- who has his own question marks (albeit he deserves much better than the way he's apparently being thrown out). As one of the most astute posters on here, your voice gives the idea of an endgame here some credence to me, but I can't see this endgame. Gruden "won" these deals, but not sure it winds up helping him all that much. All that being said, we may never know the true reasons this went down the way it is. I see two other posters in this thread arguing conflicting points, both using speculation as fact. Ultimately, I'm a bit happy he ended up in a spot that feels a bit trainwrecky. I wish neither the Raiders or AB luck, and it's on to FA and maybe (hopefully) kicking the tire on trades for the other supposedly available-for-a-price WRs out there. It would have been nice to win this, and I'm not gonna sour grapes this, AB probably would have helped, but I also don't feel like we lost anything. Beane tried and something fell through.

That's speculation. Let's see how the FA season goes outside of the attempted trade for the player we already knew was kind of a diva (that being said, i was ecstatic when i thought we were going to get him).

This doesn't even pass the basic sniff test of logic. Gilmore, and I guess Dareus to a degree (his comments felt a bit man-scorned), have popped off post being here, but most of these guys were traded and let go (and, for crying out loud, Maclin didn't even play here so he fits the original premise anyway). Your better argument might have been Whitner and a couple others who have been vocal on Twitter, but mostly they were whipping boys and part of me does not blame them. But let's just say that ALL the players you mentioned left Buffalo in a huff and have been bad mouthing their time here, the fact that some people did not like it here does not mean that many others do. But, by all means, self-loathe about the city. I have mixed feelings. I live in NYC. I've thought about coming back to WNY b/c of CoL and sense of community, but ultimately while I'm a Bills fan and lived in Buffalo for many years, NYC is still the home I chose. There are reasons players might not want to come to Buffalo, but you have to admit it's quite the football community, and to suggest that it's crazy to suggest that a lot of players come here and like it seems to be ignoring the evidence. It makes sense, come to Buffalo and do well and you're a God, everyone knows your name. Buffalo has a fanbase that has stuck by their team through 17 years of no playoffs and went crazy when they broke that streak. To players like Eric Wood, Kyle Williams, Jordan Phillips, that atmosphere can clearly be exhilarating.

This is why I suspect it's more than AB simply "refusing" to come. I'd bet if that were the case there would be a blitz of players who love Buffalo trying to change his mind, or Beane would just give it a shot as there's such a long history of players who complain about coming to Buffalo (from Kelly to Shady) who now absolutely love it.

This is closest I've heard to what I agree with. An elite WR around 30 would probably be the best value you're going to get to improve our WR corps and help Allen's development at this point, so I'm bummed about this. I'm also not going to give Brown as much of a pass (while still agreeing wholeheartedly to the first part of that last point about Ben) -- his standing up to Ben is not the problem, but taking oneself out of a game and some of the other stuff is (including IGing "fake news" during this process). Ultimately, this is one player and one incident and the only example of it we know of this off-season. Hopefully, this is a harbinger of the theme of this FA period in Beane's aggressiveness to pursue answers, but not in the outcome. Now, I'm really going to get on with the day.

Ay yi yi. Different standards for different players. Ok, go ahead and wallow in your pointless misery. I'm gonna go on with my day.

Is it better he sequester himself away and be miserable and screaming into the void. This sucks, and this is going to perpetuate that whole "no one wants to come here" notion. AB is apparently a diva...who knew? But if someone wants to find the bright side, why give them a hard time? And "more big names want to go to the Browns"?!?! Based on what?