BADOLBILZ

It's appropriate that Yolo got this scoop......because Yolo was head over heels in love with his Ohio State QB Haskins in 2018. He openly lamented how much better of a prospect Haskins was than Josh Allen. I think it was like "I'd trade Josh+ for him NOW". Trust the process. Trust but verify(and then hire a private investigator and run like 20 surprise inspections) anything related to Urban Liar.

Oh I agree that they blew it with Rodgers.............they should have been much more aggressive in their offseasons years ago...........they tried to ride him and not mortgage any of their future and that wasn't fair to the fanbase or him. They played it like the Pats played the middle of Brady's career. But Mike McCarthy is no Bill Belichick..........so that plan failed. I think the thing with the Packers is that they have pretty much spent the proceeds of that Rodgers lottery ticket. And they know it. Love isn't just a replacement he's also an insurance policy for Rodgers the next couple of seasons. IMO just a very shrewd, forward thinking decision. But in full disclosure I think the analytics would support the idea that it would be wiser to just select the best available QB with your first round pick every year than do it any other way. To me it's kind of like teams employing the shift in baseball.........years ago the idea seemed ludicrous.......and it shouldn't work but because of the nature of the game(rules designed to allow QB's to utterly dominate games) and the people involved(a lot of meatheads) it absolutely would. In the past few years we have been spoiled by an influx of athletic, big armed QB's and the employment of rules and systems that make it easier for them to succeed. But in the past the incoming QB pool has dried up for long periods of time. You just can't pass on a potential franchise talent when it's available.

The flip side: The 2017 Bills made the playoffs with just ONE of their first round picks on the active roster in Jacksonville............that year's pick Tre White. You are just wrong if you think that it makes ANY sense whatsoever to pass on a guy you think could be a franchise QB. Lot's of ways for the personnel department to make up the kind of talent you think they passed on........and only half of all first rounders even get their 5 year option picked up.....probably less at the back end of round 1......... so what you think they were relatively assured to get was at best a 50% proposition to start with. But hey they could have gotten their version of an off-the bus starter like Shaq(who happened to be out injured at the end of that 2017 season......and not missed).

Always take the QB. I know some people are pretty slow on the uptake about this..........but if you aren't drafting a QB with that pick...... then a first round pick is the most overrated means of acquiring talent. It's basically a lottery ticket and yet some teams still select positions like LB and RB and OG and such trying plug holes and win their $1 back........even forgetting the time value of said spent dollar........ instead of going for the jackpot. But hey you can't say "this team is wasting (insert all-pro guard)'s career" if you have a top quarterback.

There are definitely a lot of folks who can't process the success without giddy nonsense/hyperbole or trying to find people/things to remain angry at.😆 It's not very process-like but it's not their fault.........the organization was so poorly run for so long that it created a whole generation of people who don't' know what it's like to have a contending NFL team in town. Gotta' remember that it's a product........it was always fair to hold it to a high standard even if you remain a loyal consumer when it didn''t meet that expectation. Trust THAT process. I can actually remember during the 51-3 rout of the Raiders in the 1990 AFC Championship game thinking about how fun it was being on the precipice of a dynasty and feeling like that team could very well go on a run like the 1970's Steelers. I was ready. I never stopped being ready.

Yeah they need to find out what they have in Edmunds outside..........the light first turning on for a MLB two and a half years into their career as a starter happens basically never. Problem is that with the bad shoulder he's not likely to be able to show what he can do as a pass rusher this season........which was what should have been his calling card by now. But still he needs to not be thinking too much on the field because his brain clearly isn't wired for that MLB job.

Dodson might be ok. Generally speaking MLB's either have that ability to mirror the RB and anticipate where the ball is going or they do not. People here once compared Edmunds to Brian Urlacher...........and then when he was awful against the run they tried to make excuses about how the 3 year college LB Edmunds needed time to learn the position. But of course Urlacher wasn't even a LB in college and was playing like an all-pro in the middle immediately as a rookie. You got it or you don't. Julian Stanford was just as good as Edmunds when he had to play for him while Tremaine was out with a concussion too. No drop off. He is probably clinging to the fringe of the Panthers roster they might be able to re-acquire him for a 7th or something.

Yes Beane created more dead cap money in one offseason than any other GM in NFL history. At the same time they spent a good deal of money very poorly in free agency that offseason. Hell he burned $3M on a 2 week tryout for a WR that summer. His cap management, personnel choices and contract structuring improved dramatically the past two offseasons. The only personnel area where they haven't gotten more personnel-efficient is their decisions at 1T..........cutting Dareus to grossly overpay Lotulelei and then tripling their money down on Vernon Butler to make up for the lack of impact from Lotulelei........and despite all of that their run defense was their achilles heel on D last year and is their greatest weakness now. Fortunately Josh Jacobs is banged up this week but if they get trampled on the ground in Las Vegas I do expect that Beane will make a move there though.

I know it's in the nature of the apologist to try to forget the bad decisions..........but 24 months ago the Bills had arguably the worst offense the NFL has seen since the NFL merger. It was the result of many bad decisions made. The argument that they couldn't have done better in so little time is foolish............they inherited a top 10 scoring offense that had nearly set the record for fewest turnovers in a season. The choice was made to tear it down. The new regime 2017 Rams started out that January with a worse roster than what McDermott inherited. They had been over-matched talent wise in the Bills/Rams game of 2016......their cap situation was not great either because they were coming off of a Bills-esque regime misfire. Their organizational identity was "pathetic offense". But they made aggressive and mostly correct, insightful moves and became a SB contender immediately...........with a pinball machine numbers offense from the get-go and were on their way to a SB while the Bills offense was bottoming out in early 2018. The narrative from Bills fans at the time was that the Rams would be on the down-swing by now because of all the bold moves. But that was wrong. They are obviously still a SB contender and are likely to continue to be for a while. The two teams chose to re-build in two different ways but beyond that there were far more swings and misses........fundamentally flawed decisions..... from McDermott and Beane.........the list is long. But they have learned and adapted from their mistakes and it took 4 years to get to now where the Rams were in 2017(and now)............ really a threat to go deep into the playoffs.........and that is because they learned and adapted. It really is their strength. What they may have lacked in foresight in certain areas they have at least been able to turn into a positive.

I agree. You could see where they brought some bad ideas with them from Carolina..........undervaluing quality of the WR by stocking it with lumbering targets was a prime example. After that yielded astonishingly poor separation numbers and near historically bad offense for their first couple of seasons they pivoted and began to do what works. We have had regimes in the past that wouldn't have done that. Carolina got to a SB with Philly Brown and Ted Ginn as the top WR's that season..........they challenged for and won division titles in other years without being very aggressive with regard to adding WR personnel. Guys like Tom Donahoe, Dick Jauron and Buddy Nix probably stick by that methodology because they had examples where it worked. Hell Polian and Butler probably would have. It has frustrated me as a fan because I knew that lessons learned coaching/administrating in Carolina's division........while New Orleans was re-tooling........weren't going to be enough to win the AFC East away from New England. And so far McD is still 0-6 versus Belichick. But their willingness to pivot from what doesn't work has me optimistic that there is much more to them than what they had shown at their previous stop. Which might be the first time ever that we can say that about a Bills HC/GM combo.

You aren't playing the odds then. The NFL isn't going to want to refund 1/4 of their tv money and the players.....with an average 3 season career span....... aren't going to want to take pay cuts. The NFL has a 7 month offseason and "training period" and they can probably use as much as 5 months of that if necessary to complete their season..........they are much more likely to explore stretching out the season than leaving massive amounts of money on the table.

Diggs has illustrated the difference that having high quality WR talent can make for your QB/passing offense. It's another case where McBeane seem to have learned from their earlier mistakes, which is encouraging.

The premise of the OP is wrong..........the Bills didn't get Josh Allen with the picks acquired from KC. At the time I am sure McDermott thought KC might be in for a down year and that they might get a top 12 kinda' first round pick from KC in 2018........otherwise no way you trade back that far if you think you will just get a pick in the 20's. That won't move the needle much to get you up to the top pick in the draft to select QB1. Ultimately the Bills got Tre White and Tremaine Edmunds with the capital they acquired from KC for the Patrick Mahomes pick. White is going to be a really good player for another 5-6 years. The jury is still out on Edmunds. He is one of the most "impactful" coverage LB's in the league because of his size/wingspan/speed.......he deters the use of the middle of the field in the passing game. But he is also a shoddy tackler and borderline horrendous against the run and just disappears as a playmaker for weeks at a time. In addition to his lack of instincts whether he is physically stout enough to hold up in the middle long term is also a concern. Anyone suggesting this was anything less than a lopsided trade is grasping for straws. As to your second point...........our hope here is that Mahomes/Allen turns into a Marino/Kelly situation where the Bills ultimately win much more in the playoffs and head-to-head. That's a lot to ask considering Mahomes hot start.....but that's how it actually went down with Marino/Kelly. Before Kelly ever threw an NFL pass Marino had set most single season NFL passing records and taken his team to a SB. That's how they can ultimately overcome handing an AFC rival the MVP of the league in a lopsided trade. As you say though, the Chiefs are not doing their part to undermine Mahomes by drafting poorly the way the Dolphins did with Marino.

Are you SURE @Shaw66? As sure as Kilimanjaro rises like Olympus above the Serengeti, sure? I mean this board are gonna be chapped if the Bills meet the Ravens in postseason and the era ain't ended yet. And if La-mar ends up raising the Lo-mbardi before the Bills you are going to wish you only suggested a Skelton for Mario swap.

Don't forget maintaining 6' distance from other players except for a few tight quarters situations at bat and on base. Hard to do that in football...........though some Bills defenders have been keeping a safe 2 yard distance at all times from from opposing ball carriers.

Is Mahomes better than Allen + Tre White + Tremaine Edmunds + Cordy Glenn + Stephon Gilmore + Matt Milano + Dion Dawkins + Taron Johnson + Devin Singletary? Yeah, probably any combination of 9-10 Bills picks one can arrange. At this moment he is probably the most individually valued player the league has seen since Jim Brown. If Josh can keep up his level of play for a whole season we can start subtracting names from that list.

I can only guess you did not see series. That he saw Ford as the answer to their right tackle woes is not in question. In Beane's defense he turned around and picked up Ty Nsekhe and Daryl Williams in UFA and at least half the league would love to have them at RT when healthy. The reality is that even though Beane seems to have a good head on his shoulders he is still susceptible to reaching for needs in the draft in the heat of the moment.

Every defensive tackle has a plan.........until they shift their weight slightly the wrong way. In that case the current Harrison Phillips gets dominated. A better DT would not. This isn't an old style 3 man, two gap front. 1T and the 3T both have the opportunity to make tackles and get in the backfield. Unless Vernon Butler steps up they probably won't have the horse at 1T this season to be stout. They bet a lot on him........ because Phillips was coming back from injury and Star Lotulelei has been mostly a traffic cone at 1T since they gave him that $50M deal.

Credibility?😆 I've been calling it about as close to dead-on as possible for two decades on this site. Including liking all of Beane and McD's first round picks(the players) from the get go............though Edmunds ain't going to make me look good if they continue to use him as a MLB and don't give him a shot to be a star on the edge. I'm sorry but the "well other teams passed on Mahomes and Metcalf" stuff just isn't the feather in the cap that some of you think it is. One team wins the SB every year. The margin of error is huge for fielding a competitive 8-10 win team every year......you can be wrong a lot. It gets tighter at the top. Unless, of course, your coaching staff includes Bill Belichick, in which case you can draft like sh*t and still beat his'n with your'n.

I'm a huge Allen fan. The poster I was responding to just implied that they were somehow equal "unknowns" coming into the NFL. That's not true. Mahomes was big time recruit in football and would have been an early round pick in the MLB draft out of HS if he hadn't told teams he would not sign. He was on NFL radar from the get-go. He just got dinged by evaluators for the system he played in and his freelance style............. but if he had gone #1 overall it wouldn't have been anymore surprising than when Baker Mayfield made the late leap to the top of the draft board. Mahomes laid waste to defenses in college.............there was much less shock that his arm talent and athleticism became what it did than we are seeing from astonished evaluators during Josh's hot start. They can't ***** believe it.😆

Thanks to the Bills embedded series.........where we see/hear Beane verbally covet and then pursue the trade-up for Ford because "we need a right tackle" we actually know that you are wrong about that.

Mahomes was a high profile college player............his dad was a long time pro athlete...........he had pedigree and a mountain of great plays on tape. But you are right about Josh.............the son of a melon farmer who couldn't get a scholarship offer from anyone and had to go to JC and start out there as the 3rd string QB. And he certainly didn't put a lot of good on tape at Wyoming.

Tremaine Edmunds was acquired with the pick from the Mahomes trade........not Josh Allen........ and Edmunds is having a regrettable season. They need to get him outside and stop the charade. If you want him to move him around....fine.......but he's a massive target in the run game up the middle and if teams didn't know it before they sure seem to have gotten the memo this year. They are putting a lot of wear and tear and missing an opportunity to fairly evaluate a guy who could be special on the edge while they still have time to decide on his future as a potential $15M-$20M per year player. Tre White was a really good pick.......I was confident he would be.......... but they drafted him to replace Gilmore who went on to become the friggin' NFLDPOY and best player on a defense that lead his team to a SB win. So that wasn't even a net gain. A first round pick and a good CB contract are at best a wash in terms of chip value. Mistakes were made. Josh Allen doesn't look like one of them. As I said when he was struggling early on.........hopefully he and Mahomes can become the Kelly/Marino of this generation for Bills fans. It's earlier in JA's improvement but that's easier to envision now.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

Every team that passed on Allen could have made the same type of excuses as to why they passed on a highly unusual talent. You don't pass on a potential Calvin Johnson type mismatch because you signed a couple late 20 somethings who had combined for a handful of seasons over 700 yards receiving in their decade+ in the league. That's patchin' holes..........not swinging for the fences. They were rewarded with a pretty bad offense. Fortune favors the bold. Guys like Cody Ford..........hell just about ANY right tackle or guard.......are easily replaceable......be it by scheme or in free agency etc.. It was a moment of weakness for Beane and hopefully a learning experience. He was much more aggressive with his draft chips this year.