BADOLBILZ

Always greatly appreciate your takes on prospects........you are one of the best here IMO........ and loved watching the guy play this season and would really like to have him.............but in the big picture he's a RB and while they aren't quite a dime-a-dozen anymore their production/impact on your franchise is very easily replaced. So second round is a definite no for me. To me drafting should be considered an ongoing process of franchise building instead of yearly events to fill needs. The system in place should be about getting players at big dollar positions in the first couple rounds. Consider your first round pick an option to buy a $20M UFA..........if you can't see yourself paying that player that kind of money if they reach their ceiling then you paid too much in draft capital. Your second round pick maybe a $15M UFA. Certainly not guard or RB money. Is Edwards Helaire a guy you can even envision playing top dollar to in UFA? I can't see that.

There is nothing more about someone than their opinion............you are clearly lost in yours.......read the room.............it started with a story about Lamonica's nickname by the OP and is practically all Lamonica discussion. It's dubious whether some backup from 50 years ago who has a passing opinion on Allen deserves it's own thread when we have tons of Allen threads where it could be merged into.............but a story about Lamonica is of timely interest because his trade turned out to be a disastrous mistake for the Bills at a time when the fanbase is watching the Mahomes mistake turn into a Super Bowl berth for a long time AFL/AFC rival. There is no chance that the OP didn't understand that invoking Lamonica wasn't going to elicit reaction about his trade. It ALWAYS has for as long as this board has existed. It's like starting an OJ thread and thinking nobody will mention anything about his post-career activities.

It came from you not reading the OP. AGAIN.........the thread was created to direct TBD'ers to a linked story where Lamonica talks about his playing days and gives a take on Allen.

Big, long arms, top recruit who played against future NFL talent every day in practice..........and hey he was just going to play RT. I think sometimes when you are scouting for need..........and scouts know the teams needs........there is a tendency to not dig as deep.

Pauz?

Nsekhe and Ford were VERY impressive in run blocking as a RT/RG combo in the preseason. I'm not in favor of paying Conklin...........I'd prefer to take a shot at Jason Peters and re-sign Waddle to compete or share backup duties with Nsekhe and call the position filled. Peters also offers top 10 LT ability if something happens to Dawkins. And he's year to year so low commitment........which is ideal for a position that is dubious to invest $30M-$50M in guarantees into. And worst case......if they all break down........you can put Ford out there and survive even if he sucks. Bills lead the NFL in rushing, big plays, fewest turnovers and had a good scoring team with the woeful Jordan Mills at RT for two years. Getting a top 5 RT(without LT flexibility) secured long term in FA is very much a luxury purchase IMO.

The problem with moving around the board for need in any case is that the compulsion to address a need can contaminate the evaluation.......and frankly needs are less satisfying to fulfill than wants so it's human nature to be less excited about a "need" project. At which point you may be trading up for position that you've inaccurately evaluated. And I think the psychology of managing the second round is something the Bills organization needs to look at. Is it a coincidence that the Bills string together need picks that even at the time feel like "lazy" evaluations.......like Cyrus Kouandjio, Reggie Ragland, Zay Jones and Cody Ford so often in round 2? It's like........."hey, we really nailed it with that Ed Oliver pick that we've been agonizing over for months.........we can loosen our tie and fill a need". But in years when they have had no first round pick they end up with Thurman Thomas, Sam Cowart, Roscoe Parrish and Ronald Darby..............A HOF, a DPOY candidate and a DROY candidate with 3 of 4 picks. That's incredible efficiency. I actually understand this phenomenon from a business perspective...........it's happened to me with acquisitions that you put a lot of effort into. Often times the subsequent "smaller" opportunities created by a big win........like the dissolution of physical assets of a company obtained........can be mishandled due to what I see as the combined effect of the euphoria and/or relief of completing the top objective. Simply put it clouds judgement.

And the Patriots I believe as well.

Those first two rounds gotta' be about upside/franchise impact. We are 25+ years into the unrestricted free agency system...........the rules on the field have been about the same for 10 years now............knowing that and watching teams still make such fundamental errors on draft day is perplexing. After watching the whole Ford thing unfold I am concerned that less "needs" will actually lead to more need-based........and subsequently less effective.........drafting.

Fans ate up that "we need a tackle" video of Beane sweating thru the second round last year. It was actually the pretty ugly truth about drafting for need. It happens.

Gotta disagree.................Bills fans ARE THE BILLS. Now more than ever. The Buffalo Bills fanbase was born in the 1940's..........Ralph came from Detroit in 1959, opened up shop to feed the demand, took the name and managed them mercurially for 5 + decades. Ralph deserves a lot of credit and earned at least as much scorn. First rule of management..........running a losing franchise is your fault.

Link is to a story about Lamonica which includes his opinion of Allen. OP was 50% about Lamonica nickname and OP later expanded on it. I guess you should tell a mod that the title is misleading you.

Bringing up the most significant decisions/moments in a franchise's history is what fans are going to do..........whether that's a magnificent AFC Championship win or a brutal SB choke job. Thanks for the thread on "Bills great" Daryle Lamonica............a reserve for the team 50+ years ago that ranks right behind Thad Lewis in career starts for the team. He's significant in Bills history for one reason............heaven forbid we utter it.?

I don't really see how those questions make sense relative to the Bills as an organization. But I suppose if you are highly emotional person then you need to try to forget it immediately..........hit the stages of grief etc...............if you are thoughtful you can remember it, keep the perspective and even find the humor in it. It's like that Horace Walpole quote that one of our angry apologists used to have in his sig line: "The world is a comedy to those that think; a tragedy to those that feel." Never really found out if he used that because he knew he was a Bills emo or if he was totally confused.?

I remember when trading Lamonica used to be the biggest personnel mistake in Bills history. He had a hell of a run in Oakland but never won them a SB.

He tore himself up by over training. Wouldn't stay off injuries. Biggest mistake the Bills made with him was putting him in a WR room without a veteran as a rookie. It was basically Watkins and Bob Woods.......who was going thru his own maturity issues. Anquan Boldin was a free agent..........he was the perfect match to mentor him. Boldin had struggled with injuries at Florida State and really up until age 29 in the NFL but had learned how to take care of his body to endure long seasons and subsequently became a key player on championship level teams. McBeane have been smart about having a vet in the room to show young players how to prepare. They wisely identified Boldin but pulled the plug.

The right move was to pick up his option and roll with him in 2017 and 2018 before making a decision on his free agency after the 2018 season. Bills offense has been horrible..........at times historically awful..........in the 3 years since he left and WR has been their worst position group by far in that time. The plus side for him is he's only 26. Fred Taylor was 26 when he finally figured out how to keep himself healthy and he really took off after that.

The playoffs were not kind to the Tee Higgins evaluation, IMO. He went up against legit pro-type talent and really got physically pushed around. That doesn't bode well for instant impact at the NFL level so I expect teams will be afraid of taking him that early and then having to deal with the failure to meet early expectations from fans and media etc.. Nice guy to be able to stash behind an AJ Green for a year or two though.

Another "right tackle"......?

That's not a rule of thumb because sometimes you trade up and get a HOF Julio Jones for a bunch of picks that might otherwise have amounted to zero(as they did in that case). On the whole the higher you are selecting the greater % chance that you get a stud player. The bigger sample size math doesn't lie. Ultimately you gotta' make the right pick whether you trade up, down or stay put..........if the Bills traded up and selected OBJ or Mike Evans then your rule of thumb wouldn't even be brought up in Buffalo.........it's a false premise based on one unfortunate experience. Now for hard and fast positional rules...........follow the money. If you can't find it or afford it in UFA........QB/ElitePassRush/WR1/CB1/LT...........then it's worth a 1st or 2nd round pick. Otherwise it's not. First round picks should be treated like $20M UFA purchases.........because if they pan out that's what they should be worth on the open market and you should want to retain them for market value.

I believe you are thinking of 1st team All Pro Stephon Gilmore.

Use it or pocket it would be more accurate I think............no CBA means no way for NFLPA to get their hands on that money or force the owners to spend it to reach their 90% rule. Any concern over this scenario seems unwarranted..........people from both sides want the rollover but by far the most harmed by it going away are the players.......so teams will most likely go business as usual and assume that part of the CBA will be retained. .

Every time the Chiefs give the ball to a RB that play is basically a sacrifice to the gods of offensive balance. So any time their RB fumbles the error is magnified. I honestly think that's why he's been used so little this season and even less in the playoffs. What he provides is not worth losing a possession over. If I was Reid I probably would keep him inactive for the SB but selfishly I really hope he plays and does well. I just have a feeling he's going to lose the ball against that fast, violent defense and wind up looking like the tired Willie Mays in the 1973 WS.

The point of criticism in hindsight is to illustrate the lack of foresight. Who drafted who and who won championships doesn't matter to you because it doesn't benefit you having never been a fan of a team that's won.............I get that there are otherwise non-NFL fans that are avid Bills fans who think this way..........but the results mean everything in the history of the NFL. The context is what it is........Bills are a top step of the cellar franchise.........10 steps from the bottom...........they've even drafted around 10th twice in the past 4 years............that's been their organizational level so it was entirely appropriate that they had two franchise QB's to choose from at 10th overall and decided to trade out of the pick.

But you said everyone in the NFL was equally motivated to do their jobs better? The motivational playing field is level says K-9! Your temper tantrum takes are hilarious though.