hondo in seattle

The Bills were criticized by Rosenthal (and, as I recall, Peter King) for not hiring Doug Whaley when we hired Buddy Nix to be GM. But Nix quickly hired Whaley, Whaley eventually took over the reins, and then failed. The media gurus aren't always right. Another note, I don't recall the exact number buy the Bills won about 46% of their games over the years with Wilson as the owner. Something was clearly going wrong. The argument that he was cheap with GMs and coaches makes some sense. But Wilson kept the team in Buffalo and gave tons of money to charity. For that, he has my respect.

Yep. I remember when Kelly was drafted and when he actually came to Buffalo later. That excited me. The drafting of any of these QBs will fail to excite me the way Kelly did. But I'll support any of them and hope for the best.

We need competition - not to mention camp bodies - at every position.

No worries, Shady. I always read your posts because I know you're an informed poster with good reasoning. We just disagreed on this. I used to be the optimist who always tried to find reasons to believe the Bills will be competitive. And right now the optimist in me wants to believe those who say Mccarron is the QB we've been looking for and we don't need to look any further. The pessimist in me wants to draft QBs all day long until one proves himself a worthy successor to Jim Kelly. I'm trying to be more of a realist these days and the realist in me is somewhere in between the two extremes. I acknowledge the possibility that Mccarron may be better than some think. I certainly like the kid's attitude. But until we have a proven answer (and at this point Mccarron is neither a proven success nor a proven failure), we've got to spend some of our draft capital on a QB.

I've chimed in on the naysayer side but I don't think we're doomed. First of all, Mccarron doesn't have a lot of NFL experience as a starter and we've never seen him play in a Daboll system. He may excel here. We just don't know. Second of all, we might draft a future HOFer who lines up under center and throws for 400 yards in a win on opening day. Until we know who our QB is - and how good he is - why would anyone say we're doomed? As of right now, though, I don't believe there's a lot of compelling reasons to believe Mccarron is a playoff caliber QB. There's just not a lot in his NFL resume to support that proposition. But I'm not saying we're doomed.

Good point. Dalton had a 106.2 passer rating that year. Mccarron had a 97.1 - nearly 10 points lower with the same line and receivers. What's more concerning is that Dalton was only sacked on 4.9% of his dropbacks that year while Mccarron was sacked on 9.2% of his.

Back in the day, I was taught to keep my eyes on the ball carrier (face up) and drive one shoulder or the other into the player while simultaneously wrapping him up with my arms. This technique is both relatively safe and effective.

I tend to agree. KB is a solid starter when healthy. Zay was unimpressive last year but might improve in his sophomore season. Holmes has had a good career as a backup WR. The other guys aren't bad for their position on the depth chart. We just need a good guy to be either our WR1 or WR2.

With 25% of our cap wasted on dead money, we don't currently have a lot of talent on this roster. We do, however, have a lot of draft capital. A really strong draft could transform this team into a playoff contender. In regards to AJ, his NFL sample size is just too small to make any definitive judgment. But if you're thinking like teef (Super Bowl), he hasn't shown anything so far to suggest he's a SB QB.

The important question is: Is there a consensus among the QB needy teams. It doesn't matter much what the media, fans, or rest of the NFL thinks. Let's hope there is NOT a consensus and the Bills have got the QBs ranked right while every other team that needs a QB has them ranked wrong.

Agreed. Can he stay healthy? Can he produce in a Daboll offense? Will he have chemistry with our new QB? These questions need to be answered.

Sometimes I think coaches and GMs at this time of year will say anything they want (true or not) because they know everything that comes out of their mouth will be taken with a grain of salt. McD just might be telling the truth.

I get what you're feeling but it's kind of like saying to you wife, "It's an epic all time fail if you don't come home with a t-bone steak - even if they're charging $1,000/lb."

Admittedly weird.

There are some things to like in his highlights. But I don't how you can't be concerned about his poor play outside the SEC and his lack of x-and-o expertise at the combine. His arm strength, on the other hand, looks better on film than it did on the radar gun.

True. But you can't just throw darts at the wall nor can you draft only according to need. You scout these kids as best as you can, determine your grades, and make your board. And then most teams blend BPA and need. If you lean toward need too heavily, you end up drafting losers. If the grading process says Ward is a stud but the QBs available to us are duds, you go with Ward.

I get what you're saying. But if the Bills think the best QB and LB on the board at #12 is just a guy, and the best CB is a future Hall of Famer, you've got to go with the HoFer.

No it wouldn't. Kaepernick isn't getting signed because he's a divisive player and a PR nightmare. Manziel hasn't been signed because he has a poor track record - on and off the field - and crappy mechanics. They are two very different situations and each needs to be evaluated separately. If Manziel gets signed, it means that some team thinks his problems might be behind him. I don't think Roger and the NFL are blacklisting Kap. I think that individual owners are all reaching the same conclusion on him: just not worth the baggage.

If he didn't like the provisions of his original contract, he shouldn't have signed it. I'm old fashioned. I think when you make a commitment, you keep it. And if you want a pay raise, don't be a knucklehead.

It's not a matter of who's more important. Everyone knows the answer to that question. It's a matter of who can play. Would you rather have another EJ or a Hall of Fame linebacker? Beane might not evaluate the available QBs as high as the talking heads do.

You go back to 1990 because you want a big enough sample size to produce meaningful numbers. QBs may be somewhat different now but scouting them is pretty much the same. Personnel departments these days aren't particularly better or worse at figuring out which college signal callers will be good NFL starters.

The general trend seems to be that when we have two picks in the first round, we end up with one good player and one not-so-good player. Lesson learned: GMs and scouts are often wrong. Let's hope the personnel guys we have now are better.

Agreed

Yep. It's called due diligence. If you're Beane, you want to explore and understand everything: different trade scenarios, the price of moving up, the backgrounds of each player, and so on.