Ronin

Oh, to answer your question directly, he had: Benjamin, who's had more career yards in fewer seasons than any receiver you mentioned from 2013. Holmes who's about mimicked Goodwin. Foster who's rookie season was about what Woods' was. Johnson, who's done nothing in the NFL with two other teams since then, one of those teams having a great QB. Chandler whose career doesn't even match Clay's. Hogan whose single best career, in NE with Brady, is barely better than Foster's rookie season. Not seeing a significant difference there. The other thing that you dismiss, which is clearly the case, is that many of our WRs didn't perform better simply because Allen didn't see them (or what, couldn't find them) when they were open. I realize that that's the turd on top of the toaster that no one wants to admit is there, but it is, at least for the time being. To suggest that somehow Manuel had anything even approaching an above-average cast of receivers is to lack objectivity and honesty in this discussion. Either way, here are the career totals of all of the WRs from 2013 that you've mentioned: 2,610 Yards, 18 TDs, 7 seasons 2,137 Yards, 12 TDs, 6 seasons 794 Yards, 4 TDs, 4 seasons (out of the league for four seasons now) 4,764 Yards, 34 TDs, 8 seasons (this is the star of the group, averaging fewer than 50 yards-per-game career and 4 TDs/season, now out of the league for four seasons) 4,451 Yards, 23 TDs, 6 seasons (only successful to any significant extent on a team with a very good QB on a team with the 5th leading passing game, who was a rookie in 2013) Only one of those 5 has averaged over 800 yards/season and prior to playing in LA last season he averaged below 700 yards/season. Otherwise none of those WRs has averaged over evey 600 yards/season. There's nothing prolific in that group when we consider that Woods was a rookie in 2013, sorry. Two of the five are no longer playing despite their still being well into their playing-age range with neither older than 32 now. Woods remains to be seen, but he's only had great success this past season, again, on a prolific passing team, his six seasons prior to that were not impressive. Much as in NE it could very well be that the success of their passing game has a whole lot more to do with Goff than with their WRs. Even Cooks did better than he did in NO and no one's going to argue that Goff is better than Brees right now. It obviously means something that he posted his best season on the Rams' offense with Goff throwing tho.

Depends upon whom you ask. Last year before the season began everyone was raving about Benjamin and Jordan, and Jones. I'm constantly reading how Jones is good and how Foster's a beast, a real steal. So which is it? Lay that out first and we can discuss further. Otherwise, can't you look it up? I'm not seeing any great set of receivers that particular season. Maybe do that homework yourself? Woods was a rookie. I'm constantly reading here how what to me was a predictable bust in Jones needs three years to develop. So which is it? Graham and Goodwin? LOL Graham isn't even playing anymore and if you think that either was better than what we had, well, not sure what to tell you. Neither are considered good. Goodwin has about 2K yards in six seasons and was also a rookie then. Johnson, Chandler? Is that your argument? Either way, the narratives all fit together to make sense or they don't. Can't take the things you like from one and discard the others. IMO Foster is overrated, Jones is a 4/5, and that McBeane botched it bigtime in trading for both Jordan and Benjamin. If you agree with that, then at least admit those shortcomings, which feed into the bigger picture here. If you dont' agree with that then it's a very difficult argument to suggest that Manuel had it better with a handful of WRs that aren't anything today other tha Woods who was a rookie then.

LMAO I fully understand. But opinions like yours are so much more valuable apart from any real data, metrics, or objective analysis. Yeah yeah. LOL Face it, you didn't do any homework prior to making any statements. Meanwhile, I'll pencil you in for insisting that throwing half as many TDs as INTs is something other than concerning.

Not really, if Allen doesn't make massive strides in his short-medium passing game, which he'll need to do in order to achieve merely average passer status, then it's not going to bode well for McBeane who have inherently put all of their eggs into Allen's basket. Let's refresh from last year's Draft; We could have had Edmunds with the original first 1st-round pick. Phillips was taken with the last of 6 day-1/2 picks. That means that essentially McBeane traded away four day-1/2 picks, one in round 1, both 2nd's, and our 1st-pick in round 3, which is essentially like another 2nd-round pick, in order to acquire Allen when the entire team needed to be rebuilt. When you make a trade like that given the state that this team was in prior to doing so, your career necessarily hinges on it. If Allen works out, great, and I, like everyone else, hope he does. But if not, there's no way on earth that they're going to have this team playoff-caliber anytime soon. Not to mention that they're essentially committed to starting Allen at least thru this season and next, so if he fails us, then it'll be like starting over. The Pegulas will not only be dealing with that but will be dealing with an understandably critical fanbase and media, both regional as well as national. We're jumping the gun here a little bit, but the leap that Allen would have to make in his passing game this season to fringe on becoming a franchise QB in that regard would be monumental. I'm not sure I see that kind of improvement in any QB, Allen or another, particularly based upon his history. We'll see tho. But make no mistake, it's not going to be his rushing or deep game that renders him a franchise QB, as with EVERY other franchise QB, Brady being a prime example, he'll have to do it with the short-medium game being his bread-n-butter. In short, the "trajectory of this organization" hinges directly upon Allen's play.

You sure about that? Did you actually look at the FACTS & DATA? Or are you simply spouting off? You can break it down by game log too, it's no better. In fact, Allen only played well against the Fins. 5 TDs, 3 INTs for 455 Yards (228 avg.) In the other 10 games he had 5 TDs, 9 INTs for 1,619 Yards (162 avg.) He played OK passing vs. the Vikes but not superlatively. You can see the differences for yourself. Manuel's Red Zone numbers were much better too. Allen: 12 of 26 (42%, bottom-dwelling low BTW), 79 Yards, 4 TDs (2 of which were in that last Miami game), 5 1st Downs, 3.0 YPA, 6.1 Adj. YPA Manuel: 10 of 21 (47.6%), 71 Yards, 6 TDs, 10 1st-Downs, 3.4 YPA, 9.1 Adj. YPA That last Miami game literally doubled Allen's Red Zone numbers. He had a mere 2 Red Zone TDs in 11 games prior, worst by a country mile of any starting QB in the league. Here's a little help for you. In the Red Zone ... Allen was 5.6% worse in Compl. % Allen was nearly half-a-yard worse in YPA and 3.0 worse in Adj. YPA. Allen's TD% rate was 15.4% which was nearly half of Manuel's 28.6%. And 15.4% sucks anyway, it's bottom-dwelling. Frankly, if we want to be frank, Allen's passing in general and Red Zone games were horrific and worse than ANY other starter the league prior to that week 17 emotionally charged Miami game. As I've said, if he plays like he has vs. Miami next season we can expect to see 40 TDs & 24 INTs. If he plays like he did in the other 10 games we can expect to see 8 TDs & 15 INTs. Unfortunately we're not going to have that emotionally charged element present in any of those games this season. Again, being frank, in the other 11 games of his he was horrific as a passer, statistically/metrically speaking. He was 152 for 294 (51.7%), for 1,850 Yards, 7 TDs, 11 INTs, with a sack-rate of 8.4, same as Manuel, which is high, particularly or a mobile QB. I'm quite sorry that you thiink that those numbers are better than Manuel's rookie numbers. If you don't think that needs massive improvement tho I'm really not sure what to tell you. It's far from even average though much less Franchise Caliber. But those are the FACTS.

Purely from a passing perspective, Manuel had a better rookie season than Allen did. That's a fact. Also, Allen has largely only played well as a passing QB against the Fins. Those aren't good indicators.

And if not, we're looking at a new GM & Head Coach.

In spades!

Another offseason win baby! LOL That sums it up right there. If Allen works out they'll be geniuses. If not, they'll be looking for jobs.

FWIW, the entire free agency except for Morse has been like that. I mean seriously, reading here about how now we have a #1 WR because we signed Brown? Seriously? If anyone had suggested that Brown was our answer to our WR sitution before free agency had begun they'd have been laughed at. Beasley too. Brown's catch% is right down there in the bottom-dwelling pits like Jones' is. Think about it, if someone had said prior to FAcy, BEFORE we signed him, that Brown was going to be our "star WR," who would've been excited? I would have laughed. Not sure why I should be excited now just because it's happened. The only FA signing that to me is not simply depth-caliber talent is Morse, but before I get too exicted about him he'll have to play in more than the 18 of 32 games he played in over the past two seasons. This team is a roster full of depth players on offense, we need above-average impact players. IMO they haven't signed one yet with the sole exception of Morse. Beasley's much better than Jones but Allen left so many yards on the table last season looking for players deeper as opposed to where Beasley will typically be on a route, so first Allen has to improve, by leaps and bounds, his short-medium game if this is going to work. Brown has averaged 645 yards and 4.5 TDs/season. Hardly anything that excites me as our top WR. Only 3 of his 22 TDs have been longer than 33 yards, two in 2014 with Palmer and the other in 2015, none in the past three seasons. Once again, to deemphasize the impact of the deep-game and place the appropriate emphasis on the short-medium game where ALL franchise QBs butter their bread. He barely cracked 1,000 once and has never come close otherwise. Beasley has a very good catch%, but he’s averaged less than 500 yards and barely over 3 TDs/season in only 22 starts during a 7-season career. Only 2 of Beasley’s 23 TDs were greater than 24 yards. Also, he’s 30 this season, hardly a spring-chicken and entering his back-9. In short, the narrative doesn’t match with reality in terms of the “deep-game.” Also, here’s the thing, when you have to expect that players brought on produce to their best seasons ever or better, I’m not sure that’s a well-placed hope, particularly on a team with a QB that was bottom-dwelling in the passing department and one with only depth-caliber offensive talent otherwise and with the QB pending. Are we expecting both of them to post then again 50% of their average production now? If so I'd strongly suggest that that's an unreasonable expectation. If we get their averages from them they're hardly any "solution" to the passing game. I’m not sure whether most people understand what a poor passer Allen is and how much work he needs to do in order to merely become an average PASSER much less a franchise QB caliber passer. The thing is that he’s never performed like that in the passing department, ever, so it’s a tall order. Sure, he’s exciting, can run and hurdle defenders, but that’s not what makes a franchise QB. It's also what's going to get him killed and significantly curtail his career. Let's keep in mind too that teams now have a season of film on him too, no surprise this season. He thrived on surprising opponents last season, this season that advantage is gone.

WHAT?! Anyone that's embarrassed to wear their team wear has some serious insecurities.

Agreed. There's also absolutely no reason to move him to the outside. This ill-founded narrative that he's better on the outside is just that, ill-founded. Edmunds is going to be great no matter where he lines up and MLB is the most important position on the D, which is why they need to keep him there. Edge pass rushers are far easier to come by than phenominal MLBs like Kuechly, Willis, Lewis, etc.

I hope it's exciting. LOL If not, well, ... Problem is that it seems like the top free-agents are all defense. There aren't a lot of great OL-men available. I'd definitely make a serious move for Paradis. He's a bit old for a center, as it was Wood was the oldest C in the league his last two seasons. But a three-year deal would at least hopefully be a stepping stone to creating a decent OL. The problem with free agency is that you have so many teams, while it's fun to think that you'll land the top-3 OL-men in FAcy, the reality is the opposite. We'll be lucky to get one. As everyone knows, you build your team via the Draft, which is where GMs earn their keep. FAcy is a nice supplement, but you tend to overpay, particularly if you're us. So far I'm not impressed by McBeane's drafts. If Allen becomes anything but a franchise QB by sometime in the 2020 season then McBeane's goose is cooked. Doesn't matter what they do between now and then. Based upon their insistence that Peterman would be good it certainly leaves room for speculation.

It's sad that after two full offseasons the most impressive move as perceived by fans, by a long shot, is the trading away of a second-rate passing QB for a 3rd-round pick. As a related point-of-note and an indication as to how far Allen has to climb to become a franchise QB, consider that in 2017 Taylor's effectiveness in the red zone dwarfed Allen's this past season. Again, here's hoping. But that's where people need to keep their focus, on Allen's short-medium game, that is what is going to define him as a passer in the NFL and his status as a franchise QB will hinge directly on that, his passing ability, not his running ability. If anything his running is going to curtail his career.

I'd also rather have little cap space and good players. The good teams may have no cap space, but guess what? Agree on the first two points. On the third one, he's got quite a bit of building to do. This team is far from playoff competitive and with essentially needs at every single position offensively, besides Allen, upon who he'll sink or swim, and quite a few needs in the front-7 on D, that's too much work to do in one offseason. He'll have to have an A+ draft, not according to the post-draft commentary, but in reality this coming season, if he wants to have a serious chance at saving his job.

So far offensively they've been a disaster and the avoidance of further disaster depends 100% on Allen becoming a franchise QB. Defensively they've been OK, but signing guys like Lotolulei for what they gave him and this overreliance on ex-Carolinians hasn't been good. Other than draft picks they really haven't added a whole lot that's notable, and in the front-7 they've added nothing apart from Edmunds and Milano. Given that most of their resources have gone to the defense I had expected more. Like I said elsewhere, everyone looks at the sole indicator of the 2nd-ranked yardage D but completely ignores the same 18th-ranked scoring D that we had last year except with allowing one more point-per-game, coupled with the 30th-ranked red zone D and the worst red zone D that we've had since 2003 at least, and only stopping there because I couldn't find out red zone D rankings prior to that. Having said that, it would seem that perceptions, whatever they are, on average are greater than the actual status of the team, meaning that we overachieved this past season. Either way, the team overall is worse now than it was when they had it handed to them, at least from a talent perspective. If after this season that hasn't changed, well, not sure how they avoid terminal criticism. If Allen doesn't become at least an above-average passer this season and if we don't win at least 9 games, McBeane will be "on-the-clock" as it were. The problem there is that Allen's gotta make an enormous leap in his passing in order to be able to achieve that. Not sure whether that's going to happen.

He does? What's the plan? All I see is Allen. If Allen works out then "the plan" works out, if Allen doesn't work out, and very likely requiring an enormous improvement in his passing game beginning this season, then McBeane will have 2020 at the most to make the playoffs and prove whatever plan it is. Allen's going to have to make HUGE strides in red zone performance in order to prove that "the plan" is working. The thing that he doesn't have going for him is that there's no need for a strong-arm in the red zone. Either way, I see no evidence of any plan yet other than having traded up a bunch of day-1 & 2 picks to get Allen last year. And agree with K-9, it's not exactly like the bar for best GM since Polian has been set very high, it's a below-average standard. Butler was arguably the best but he had remnants of Polian's talent to work with. Donahoe, Levy, Brandon, Nix, and Whaley were all below-average.

He may be in over his head anyway, that's hardly been established one way or the other. Last season's ventures in free-agency were hardly an encouraging sign however. Right now McBeane's tenures in Buffalo are directly tied to Allen's progress as a passer. This Draft will help sort out how good Beane is. As of now the team today is worse than the team as it was when they took over. After three seasons of making moves, even if the first was merely a semi-house-cleaning (because it was hardly a major house-cleaning) after two additional offseasons of choice, progress should be made. Either way, the offensive cupboard is very bare. Allen's cemented in as the starter for the foreseeable future, but if he fails then so does McBeane. Otherwise, there's not one single spot in the other 11 starting spots that is presently manned by anyone of above-average caliber play on a consistent basis. That's a helluva lot of work to do to render the team competitive. Defensively we are about to find out that the D was overrated. .... hear me out. Sure we were ranked 2nd in yardage D, but in scoring D we ranked 18th, same as last year, but having allowed a full point-per-game more. Here's the thing, we were ranked 30th in red zone D and worse than we've ranked in red zone D going back at least 16 seasons thru which the data is available. So the question is how do we reconcile our top-ranked yardage D against a below-average scoring D and near DFL red zone D. Here's a part of the reason why; we were ranked DFL in opponent starting field position, ergo, shorter drives required for our opponents to score, but score they did once in the red zone, more so than against 29 other teams.

The WR that you're defending was ranked 210 (out of 212) in catch % in 2017. In 2018 he ranked a pathetic 176th (out of 202) in catch % in 2018. He's posted 9 TDs in the two seasons. 5 of those TDs were in losses. 3 of the other 4, including 2 in that last Miami game last season when the entire team was in beast mode, were essentially in routs. The only TD that he scored that proved to be significant and directly contributed to a win was in the KC game last season. His only two decent games were blowout wins against the Jets and Fins, and the way we were playing in both of those games we didn't need him. Two of his three TDs were when the games were long over and the other one of two were both in that Fins game where Allen, in really his only great game, was a one-man wrecking crew. If he (Jones) were on any other team no one here would be defending him at all. He's a "dime-a-dozen" WR if even that.

Very astute post! It was similar in college, he put up gawdy numbers when the Pirates were out of the game, aka garbage time. It was very often, mostly in fact, from a spread often featuring 5 wides. Either way, his catch % is horrific, in his rookie season it was 2nd from DFL, this past season it improved, and how could it not, but was still way below average. He's had two seasons with lackluster results. He's a 3/4 at best, he may not even be effective in that role. The only thing keeping him here imo is that he's cheap. "Will play for food." And honestly, what does one make of that off-season incident last year. One more hiccup like that and that could be it. Either way, relying on him to start at this point is a fool's game.

To be honest I'm not quite sure what you're talking about. If you're trying to defend Allen then I'd suggest not using three games in which he went 48 of 96 (a perfect 50%), for 427 Yards (an average of 142/game), 1 TD, 8 INTs, (3 more fumbles lost for 11 TOs total), and a YPA of not even 4.5 with an adjusted YPA of just over 1. You won't find a draft eligible QB from that season that played worse on average against power-5 competition. To any extent that those games may have been close, and two were essentially over at halftime, it was purely the defense, not the offense that averaged 11 points-per-game that kept it “competitive.” The Oregon game was over midway thru the 2nd Q. Flopping is one thing, being horrific is another altogether. If you take a look at all the other QBs that weren’t even drafted last year, I’m tellin’ ya, you won’t find one that had worse performances than Allen. Any that were even remotely close have no chance of doing anything in the NFL. As to “my premise,” you’ve clearly not been paying attention. For starters Allen only looked like the best player on the field as a passing QB for one game, that last Miami game. Before that his passing stats were horrific. Minnesota was a good game considering, but hardly to the extent that he was the best player on the field. In that game he had one passing TD, all but handed to him by the D starting at the Minny 26. Another scoring drive was mostly a drive where Ivory caught a short pass for 55, all Ivory. Allen was not good otherwise on that drive and in the red zone on the day, where his issues are (short-medium game) he was awful, going 2 of 4 for 8 yards, no TDs. Before the week 17 Miami game he had 2 red zone TDs all season. Worst by a country mile of ANY QB. Now, if you want to say that he was the best athlete on the field, probably a little more room to argue that point. But I’ll take a non-athletic QB that has an on-point short-medium game, like Brady, any day of the week over an athletic one that struggled in his short-medium game, to the extent that he was down there with the worst and the worst rookie this year to boot. We’ll see what happens this year, but “my premise” is that if his short-medium game doesn’t improve in a major way this season, it’s just a matter of time before McBeane are no longer here since they absolutely need Allen to work out to the status of franchise QB in order for them to save their jobs given what they gave up to move up and get him. But make no mistake, he’s not going to become a franchise QB because of his running. He isn’t even Michael Vick right now in the passing game, not even close. Agreed, be nice for him to have more options. But then let's put the blame where it belongs for him not having them. Franchise QBs all have one thing in common, their short-medium games, which include what they call "high-percentage passes," are outstanding. Allen's was and is horrific and was also poor in college. His Red Zone performance is bottom-dwelling, even amongst rookies. That clearly has to change. He's not going to run, run, run his way to success much less franchise QB status.

Perhaps, but I don't think they were as "stop-gap" as you seem to think. Remember, we traded away a mid-3rd-round pick to get Benjamin, who had only one year left on his contract. If that was as a stop-gap then it was tremendously short-sighted. So McD can pick his poison there. You don't trade away a mid-3rd round pick for a one-year stop-gap player. Same for Matthews, for whom we traded away Darby for. Darby's a good serviceable CB, you don't trade away players like that for a "stop-gap." Granted, we got a very late 3rd-round pick in exchange as well that we used to draft Harrison Phillips, but right now if you asked the average person would they rather have Matthews and Phillips, or Darby, what do you think they'd say? I'd take Darby in a passing league. Phillips hasn't done anything noteworthy and on top of that he was a noted run stuffer, again, not exactly the concern in the modern NFL. Which brings up another point, this is a passing league that is predicated upon offense. I pointed out a couple of months ago that in order to make the playoffs these days, apart from dumb luck and "help" from other teams, which typically means you're not playoff caliber if you can't earn a spot outright, the teams that used to make the playoffs traditionally had top-10 defenses. This year none of the four finalists had anything close to a top-10 defense. All had remarkable passing offenses during the regular season however. As of now, McBeane have been building a team the wrong way to compete in the modern NFL. To that point, over half of this past season's sack total was generated by three players in their back-9, with one of them having retired. Lorax is on that doorstep as well. Where is the emphasis on new players to rush the opposing QB? They'll sink or swim on Allen's abilities as a passer. Nothing else is going to matter re: their futures here in Buffalo. But right now their neglecting of the offense, either by poor moves or outright neglect as you imply, hasn't put in place the offense to give Allen the best chances of succeeding. Let's be honest too, none of their moves except for Allen and Jones have involved a lot of capital, whether it be compensation or draft capital, and Jones has not worked out anywhere close to their stated expectations. His gawdy numbers in only his senior year in college predictably did not transfer to the NFL, nor will they. That should have been obvious before that draft to anyone that had studied Jones' splits. Otherwise, all they've done is scrape the bottom of the barrel of free agency or use day-3 draft picks in a poke-n-hope style regarding the offense. We'll see if those work out and stick, but right now there's not a whole lot on offense to be excited about. There's not one above-average OL-man on the team, most of the starters are below-average. And frankly, not seeing that Shady's performance, for whatever reason, would drop off since he turned 30, or thereabouts, also doesn't say much for their understanding of offensive players and talent as history lays out in no unmistakable manner. No great OL-men. No RB No proven #1/2 WRs No bona fide starting TE It's a lot to ask a team to put all that in place in one offseason, even two. They'll essentially have to ignore the D for now in order to even have a shot at it. I'm not sure I see that happening given their propensity to want to develop the D, which again, is the bass ackwards approach in the modern NFL. In today's NFL the very first thing you want in place is the passing game. Secondly a passing D. Then a running game. Lastly the running defense. NFL games these days, sadly IMO, are track meets. Gone are the days of Bruce and the D leading the team to victory. The rules favor offense now in no small way.

No, what I said was that Phil McGeoghan was McD's choice for WRs coach, who coached Jones at EC in Jones' Sr. season. It was him, again, McD's choice, that fueled that decision. He's gone now, which says something. So it wasn't Whaley's scouting staff at all on that one, it was entirely McD's choice for WR and therefore ultimately McD's decision. Fair enough on Beane, but McD doesn't get off that way. Either way, both are now all-in on Allen. The team turned four of their first five picks ranging from 12th overall to 65th (1st pick in the 3rd) into Allen. No way they get out of this if Allen doesn't become a franchise QB. I didn't say that he was a total bust, but in the 2018 version of the NFL where passing is made easy, a whole lot more is expected than a WR that ranked 176th in catch%, notably up from his rookie season when he was near DFL. He hasn't posted a 100-yard game yet and PFF has him rated as an average WR, which IMO is generous. Either way, and my opinion aside, that's hardly what one expects from a WR drafted at the top of the 2nd round and one that everyone (except for me, I warned, even before the draft) ranted and raved about. He definitely is a partial bust tho. I haven't heard anyone claim that he's met expectations. It typically doesn't take WRs three years to ante up in the NFL anymore. That perhaps was the case 20 years ago, but in the nowadays pass-happy NFL it's far from the case. Like I've said before here, five WRs drafted after him have posted better numbers. Three rookie WRs posted better numbers this year as rookies than Jones did in his second season. Three more posted within 100 yards of him this season. 11 rookie WRs this season posted more yards than Jones did in his rookie season. Just sayin'. I'm not hingin' my hopes on Jones. Apart from the fact that I was referring to the offense, ... White had a great rookie year and a major sophomore slump. Graded average this year by PFF.. Jones graded average as well despite ranking 176th in catch% this season and 210th (out of 212) last year. Dawkins graded above-average by them but his performance was inconsistent. Allen was ranked poorly as a passer. Forget his rushing, it won't factor into whether he becomes a franchise QB or not. If he doens't make a major leap in his short-medium game this season there's no way McBeane can turn things around in order to save their jobs. Edmunds I was high on before the draft and I expect to be around for the duration if they don't bungle his contract at some point. I expect him to the best MLB that we've ever had. Phillips played OK, PFF has him as average, which sounds about right, perhaps a wee bit generous. He had no sacks, few pressures, not sure why anyone would think that he's got a roster spot tied up. Either way, even by PFF's standards, there's not one impact player there that they had rated above average this season. To me that leaves room for improvement. Lots. You don't go into the draft in rounds 1 & 2 hoping to draft average players. The expectation there is to draft ringers, impact players. Edmunds will get there, White will if he rebounds from his soph slump, but otherwise there's not an impact player in the bunch yet. We can argue whether or not they'll improve next season, they may, they may not. But insisting that they all will is a fool's mission as well. Either way, let's not leapfrog the point here, the point is that there's a ton of work to be done on the offensive side of the ball and they haven't exactly been good with that. Let's not forget what their (McBeane's) "solutions" on offense have been: Benjamin, Matthews, Murphy, Cadet, Thompson, Holmes, Ducasse, and Bodine. Hardly impressive.

You kind of lost me there. Allen's there by default until further notice and also what McBeane's future in Buffalo is directly tied to; Foster had four good games and never did anything in college. I left him out as a benefit of the doubt, but he had as many poor games as he did good ones. I think it's a bit premature to insist that he's a bona fide starter. Two of his 100-yard games were against the Jets and what is perceived as his success is largely predicated upon three or four deep balls accounting for about 200 yards and 2 of his 3 TDs. That's typically not a good formula for sustained success. The jury's definitely out there in spite of the fact that I gave him a benefit of the doubt. Not sure why you'd suggest McKenzie, he didn't do much of anything on offense. Am I missing something? As to Jones, he ranked 176th in the league in catch%. Can't complain about dropped passes w/o citing him as one of the primary reasons. Either way, I can't say that I'm happy with him occupying one of the 11 starting spots. My expectations much less hopes for a starting WR, one of 2 in that 11, are notably greater. Either way, so you're saying that you're comfortable going into the season with Jones, Foster, and McKenzie, or two of those three at 2 of 11 starting rosters spots? Not me. Maybe Foster pending second year developments, but that's it after him and IMO they should have a much better prospect at the team's #1 WR next to Foster if they're going to try that.

Notwithstanding ... As I said, to me anyway, the obvious pick was Smith-Shuster, and that was before the draft, I had no idea he'd be as good as he is, I simply expected Jones to not be very good. Unfortunately I wasn't off there. That's all I'm saying, smaller school players are greater risk, all but categorically.