hondo in seattle

Not to give you a hard time, brother, but does your "feeling" really warrant a new thread? Couldn't you have just put your feeling into some other Josh Allen or draft thread? Though I wouldn't mind doubling up on Josh Allens.

Why are we discussing such depressing stuff on the eve of the draft???

This is exactly right. Beane has done a good job building up the roster with decent starters. What we need now are difference makers. At least in the early rounds, I think Beane's going BPA as he says. While our RB room is full, we could use some young legs. Shady & Gore are not the future. I wouldn't be surprised if we didn't take a RB but I wouldn't be surprised if we did. The only position I'd be surprised if we drafted is QB. We need upgrades everywhere.

Certainly Rex's failed tenure contributed to Whaley's demise and Whaley didn't choose Rex. But you bring up a more interesting point about NFL leadership models. There are three in use: * HC works for GM. * GM works for HC. * GM and HC are coequals. They all have pros and cons. The Pegulas seem to prefer the co-equal approach and I'm not convinced.

Okay. I get the context now. And, as far as that goes, Whaley was far from an idiot. I remember SI calling him a 'rising star' or something like that when he was with the Steelers. He was and is a bright guy. In fact, no GM is an idiot. All of them know far more about football than we fans do. But some GMs are better than others. Sadly, in his time with us, Whaley did not outperform his GM peers.

Huh? I've never called anyone an idiot - not Whaley, not my fellow posters, no one. In fact, you'll find I've ranted against ad hominen attacks a few times on this site. My attitude toward Bills supporters is something like this... We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;For he who suffers Bills fandom with meShall be my brother.

I don't know how many Pro Bowlers we have in our starting lineup but it sure seems depth will be better than it's been.

Dude, why do you have to be offensive? I think Whaley was calling the shots and several people who know me don't think I'm an idiot. I don't think McD had the time or resources to control the draft. He was immersed in his new job and didn't have a bunch of scouts on his staff.

The fact it was discussed doesn't make it true. All the scouts worked for Whaley. The entire scouting process was under Whaley's control. Why would McD make the actual picks? The supposition defies logic.

I'm with the OP. I pay scant attention to mock drafts. They're more wrong than right. I prefer real facts over wild speculation and wait until the actual draft to get excited. I care nothing about do-over mocks. With all this mental m*st*rb*tion going on, this is my least favorite time of the football year.

Another nice article on match coverage... https://touchdownwire.usatoday.com/2018/11/08/the-match-game-part-2-how-nick-saban-re-imagined-defensive-coverage/

I once heard an old GM (Ron Wolf, I think) say that it doesn't matter if your first round pick is a bust. If you get two Pro Bowlers out of the draft, it's a very good draft. If you get three, it's a great draft. You've got to get at least one but the goal is to land two. If we got 2 or 3 Pro Bowlers in this draft, I wouldn't care what positions they played. 2 or 3 impact players would vastly upgrade this roster. Having said that, my hope is that at least one of those future Pro Bowlers is an offensive linemen. I'm tired of seeing our RBs futilely running into an uninterrupted mass of gargantuan men and our QBs looking like frightened gazelles running from a pack of hungry lions.

This is both true and Beane's probable opinion. But I think it would be hubris to ignore the statistical data. It ought to factor in the decision making process somewhere.

We have decent starters in every position group. What we need is impact players ... BPA

Agreed. Far too easy to be interesting

We don't need a defensive or offensive player per se. We have lots of guys who can suit up, take the field, and not embarrass themselves. What we need is an impact player. Someone with the potential to change the result of a game. Someone that opponents must account for. Beane will ask himself, "Which player left on the board will make the biggest difference." And that's the guy.

I agree that Dunne is a pretty legit reporter. I think in this case, however, his sources may have been mostly bitter malcontents.

I think free agency has gotten us to a point we don't have any glaring needs. We certainly don't have Pro Bowlers at every position but we have reasonable NFL starters almost across the board. Beane's in a position where he doesn't have to reach or trade up for a position of need. We don't need starters per se in the draft - we need impact players. And we could use an impact player in almost any position group. Beane will probably entertain trades when there's value in it. If he sees a potential Pro Bowler sliding a bit, he may trade up to nab him. Or he may trade down with a partner that offers a deal too good to refuse. Free agent impact players are typically expensive. Beane needs to find them in this draft.

There are 64 starting Guards in the NFL. PFF graded Spain at 35th best. That makes him an average starting Guard.

If I were a GM or HC, I’d want 3 solid starters and 2 Pro Bowlers on my OL. We have a bunch of decent starters and quality depth guys. We lack elite talent anywhere on the OL and I think Beane will look to the draft to fix that.

Yikes. This is hard... so many unknowns. * How much will Allen progress from Year 1 to Year 2? * How will all the new starters on offense gel? * How much will Daboll improve in his second year? * Who are we going to draft? * What other FAs will we sign? 9-7.

I give credit to Chan for making lemonade when given lemons

Seriously, Gug... if someone was willing to pay you to act on a tv show, would you say no? Sounds like a fun experience for him. None of us are consistently noble, charming and big-hearted. You might have met Andre on the worst day of his life. Or his best. You don’t know. One interaction- one moment in time - doesn’t define a man.

This is why I hate this time of year. News gets replaced by endless speculation.

I get the Jim Brown votes. But after watching OJ play, I don't get any other RB getting votes. Back in the 1970s, teams ran to establish the passing game. RBs were the kings of football. Folks didn't talk about "franchise QBs" in those days. Back then, you needed a guy to tote the ball. And you needed a defense to stop the other team from running. The Bills didn't have a good D in '73. Fergy was still raw as a QB. We had one weapon: OJ. If opponents could stop OJ, they won. But they couldn't stop OJ. Usually the winner of the rushing title rushes for 50 or 100 yards more than his nearest competitor over the course of a season. That year, OJ outrushed the next best back by nearly 900 yards. He wasn't simply the best RB that year. He was at another level. He was multiple levels above other backs.