hondo in seattle

Thanks Scott for creating a home & forum for our Bills Band of Brothers. I enjoy this site enough to visit every day. And welcome to all the BBMB refugees!

When I first read this: "We’re going to exhaust every resource, every avenue, and every option available to us.” I had two thoughts... 1. McD means what he seems to be saying - that a trade is a possibility a la the article. 2. The Bills are negotiating with Tyrod to restructure his contract. Their only leverage they have is that he wants to remain as the Bills starting QB. So they're not committing to him publicly - even if they've already secretly decided to stick with him regardless. I lean toward #2. In either case, McD said what he was schooled to say. His answer was not spontaneous without forethought or prior planning.

Lorax was a great story. But my eyes saw a smart football player who understood his role more than an athletic one with great speed and power. A nice guy to have on your team - but not at a premium price.

What isn't funny is that a couple of these things will turn out to be true.

Most of me just doesn't care about Doug - he's part of Buffalo history now. But it was such a weird event - his quitting - that I admit some curiosity. It's good to read that he knows he should have handled things better. "I always appreciated that experience. I thought Kim and Terry Pegula were great coming in, Mr. Wilson was awesome when he was alive while I was there, Mary Wilson. The people in the organization, there's a lot of great people there. I think when you go back and you look back, I'll be honest, there's some things that I should have done differently... Privately, I've talked to Terry about that. He knows how I feel about it. I'm going to obviously keep that conversation private. Yes, I would say absolutely, you learn from that. That's one of the mistakes you wish you could go back and do over and you just wish you had more time."

The only time my Filipino wife encountered racism in the US was two days after the election. A middle aged woman heard my wife talking in Tagalog on the phone and told her to go back to her own country if she can't speak "American." Sadly, I'm not making this up - she really said "American." My wife, btw, is an American citizen and speaks English fluently but happened to speaking to her mom on the phone. Was the timing (2 days after the election) coincidental? Maybe, but we don't think so. When I served this country in war, we soldiers used to say that we're all the same color: army green. The only colors any Bills fan should care about are red, white and royal blue.

Matt Ryan has been a starter for 9 years in the NFL. His 2016 QBR was 83.1 - about 10 points better than his previous best. His 2017 passer rating was 117.1 - nearly 20 points better than his previous best. Jim Plunkett, to give another example, was a mediocre journeyman who had finally broke out in 1982, his 11th season, when he finally polished his skill set and got plugged into the right offense. Some QBs are slow learners. And some QBs need the right coach/system to bring out the best in them. I worry that we've already seen Tyrod at his very best. But I'm not convinced we have. If Dennison can boost Tyrod's passer rating by 20 points and his QBR by 10 points - like the coaches in Atlanta did with Ryan - we'll all be thrilled with the decision to stick with Taylor.

I don't necessarily agree with Bill. But there's a reason why he's made millions in football while we fans pay millions. He thinks about the business differently, more holistically. We evaluate the product we see on the field because that's the only part we see with our own eyes. Polian has a POV that's both broader and deeper. As an insider, he knows more intimately than we do just how important the other stuff is... the effort on the practice field... the influence in the locker room... and so on. I think discounting Polian's opinion because he's old or whatever is shortsighted. This is a man with proven football acumen and he has a valid viewpoint, even if we see things differently.

I missed that but it makes sense. Assembling the team is the job of the GM. Preparing the team is the job of the HC.

Imagine you lead a platoon of infantrymen. You're getting ready to go into battle but you have only two weapons. Then someone says, "Let's get rid of one of the weapons. It's getting old and not worth the cost of maintaining it." What would you do? Get rid of that one weapon and go into combat with the only other weapon left to you? The Bills have only two significant offensive weapons: Sammy and Shady. We keep both.

Yolo, this is great stuff. I love when people argue from facts rather than random impressions. And btw, it reinforces my contention that the combo of Roman's play design, Lynn's play calling, Shady's running and Tyrod's dynamism was something close to magical. I'm talking only about the run game, of course. Teams with strong rush defenses focused on our rushing attack because our passing attack didn't scare them. And yet Shady had the best ypc of his career and the Bills led the NFL in rushing. And we scored a lot of points.

And Tyrod was a part of that offense. I know you disagree but many of us feel Tyrod was an important element in our rushing attack. Personally, I think there was something magical in the combined alchemy of Roman's play designs, Lynn's run calls, Shady's running skills, and Tyrod's dynamism. That mixture put up a lot of points, despite the frustrating inconsistencies of the aerial attack. Even when Tyrod wasn't actually running the ball, his mere presence forced outside defenders to play contain and made all defenders a tad more tentative. Shady enjoyed the best ypc of his career partly because of Tyrod. Tyrod's below-average passing skills combined with his extraordinary running skills and his good leadership make him an average - if unconventional - QB. I'd rather have an average-ish Tyrod than the journeyman bums who are available on the free agent market. And I'm not confident any of the college QBs coming out are Day One starters.

While we need guys to get it done on the field, we shouldn't underestimate the need for locker room leadership. Kyle is still playing at a high enough level. And he seems to have a super positive influence on his younger teammates. His worth - by NFL terms - his salary.

As a guy who thought Tyrod was our best option, I should feel happy about this. But I feel nothing at all. I never thought the rumors of Taylor being cut were realistic.

I believe in always fielding the best team you can. As I see it - and apparently as the Bills brain trust sees it - Tyrod is the best option at QB right now. But while I like Tyrod more than some of his vehement detractors, I don't see him as a franchise QB. It'll be interesting to see if Dennison and company can coach his play up another level. But I agree that we should still draft a QB.

Not surprising at all. There were no realistic, tenable alternatives.

From what I understand, DW and the personnel department send out daily emails to all 53 players updating them on what they're considering. I'm sorry, major, but this sounds like bunk. Shady and Watkins both on the trading block - our only two offensive weapons? And you heard this from a player? Because players know what DW is thinking ("considering")? None of this makes any sense.

Our offense scored a lot of points. Shady served his purpose. Unfortunately, our D gave up a lot of points and Shady doesn't play D. One special player doesn't get you to the playoffs. You need several. Right now we have too few and losing one more only takes us further from ending the drought.

Every team has a bunch of JAGs starting for them. What distinguishes the great teams from the also-rans is the numbers of standouts. Great teams have more. Shady is one of our few standouts. You don't get rid of players like that. We have too few standouts already.

According to rumors... The Bills will cut TT, leaving CJ as the only QB on the roster. In his limited action last season, CJ was putrid. The Bills will cut Shady, who led the Bills to the rushing title. Hamstringing both our running and our passing attacks with vague hopes of filling the gaps in free agency or the draft doesn't seem like the way to build a playoff team, IMHO. Maybe the rumors are wrong?

CJ had a unique skill set and was fun to watch when Chan got him going.

As a fan who's always looking for reasons to hope, I thought this was intriguing.

Eric, nice job as always. It's great to see intelligent, thoughtful argument instead of the more typical emotional "Tyrod sucks!" type commentary common here. Though I must admit I'm beginning to grow weary of 2016 season archaeology and analysis - especially when we'll definitely have a new offensive scheme in 2017 and possibly a new QB. Whatever Lynn did wrong with the passing game, I thought he play-called Roman's run scheme brilliantly. I'm not convinced Dennison's O will produce more points.

I think this is exactly right. My suspicion is the DW and OBD have already provisionally decided to keep TT if no better options present themselves. But they're in no hurry to make a final decision and keep answering the phone and reading the news to see what might develop. Simultaneously, they might be negotiating with TT's agent for a restructure.

I don't see the Door 1 and Door 2 as mutually exclusive. I think the best of course of action is to play TT this season and see how far we can go. At the same time, we continue to develop Cardale who's clearly not ready for prime time - and may never be. And we also draft a QB - who may or may not work out. Every QB in every draft is a roll of the dice. No matter how many times we draft a QB, Tyrod may be the best Bills QB to suit up over the next few years. The NFL success rate with drafted QBs is not high. The ability of our scouts to identify good QBs is far from proven. I don't want to suck for several years until we finally get lucky and draft a franchise QB. The only way to build a culture of winning is by winning. If TT gives us the best chance of winning now, then he's our guy.