GunnerBill

I agree with you on the chance of making a trade. I disagree with you on Coleman and Davis being very different. There are some difference but some strong similarities too.

I am not against the idea of hiring him. I am sceptical about the idea you use him in game. I just don't think he will get to a decision quickly enough. That isn't the strength of the refs.

Im not saying it is a good reason. I am saying it is THE reason. How many times has McDermott taken a timeout and then challenged?

A value acquisition is not one of the guys you listed. He means like trading for a Nelson Agholor or a Treylon Burks or something. He isn't saying a trade for a top WR wouldn't make a difference. He is saying the Bills are not looking for that (I agree with him) regardless of whether we think they should be (and I do).

The reason coaches take timeouts before challenges is because they can't get a decision from their replay spotter fast enough. By the time Parry has set out all of those possibilities the team are at the line trying to run another play. I think it would likely add more delay to that process rather than clear things up. I think refs as part of your game management staff in and of itself is not a bad idea.... but I wouldn't be in favour of them having a role on gameday. They are deliberators by trade on these close calls not guys who make quick clear decisions to advise on throwing flags.

This is where I think Beane is at too.

It was another 2-3m for the 51 to 53 adjustment last year though. I just don't see the flex to get a headline grabbing trade and even if there were Beane seemed to be pretty clear when asked about it. I'd like him to make one. Our WR room is still a weakness. But I don't see them pursuing a deal and even if they do I'm not sure I see a deal that makes sense. None of the seven guys listed in this thread are doable without creating more space first. They have to be able to absorb the salary they are trading for before they can restructure. That means whatever a guy is bringing with him in salary (not cap hit, salary) this year has to fit under the cap. If it doesn't they can't make the deal. Are some of the guys not named Aiyuk (because he can't adjust his) possibly guys who might adjust their deals to facilitate a trade? Sure. But the Bills would be paying a premium to the trading team for that. I would still like a true #1 type receiver. But I don't think the Bills are thinking that way and I don't think there is an obvious deal for them even if they are.

The combo of things Beane has said it is for - draft picks, 51 to 53 adjustment and in season flexibility for replacements etc. Then roll what's left over. Maybe I'm wrong but I honestly can't see it.

I don't deny that the Bills needed a QB badly. I wanted them to take one in 2017 and was frustrated then that they didn't quite apart from Mahomes turning out to be generational. It was an ill advised trade. However, I'm not sure the bolded line is true. That really isn't is his skillset. Asking a defensive coordinator to be an expert QB evaluator is a high bar IMO. I agree it was a miss by the Bills and a mistake... but I put it on the organisation and how it got to the place where it hired McDermott in January and retained Whaley as a lame duck GM through April more than I blame it on McDermott himself. And that goes right back to the catalogue of mistakes the Pegulas made in running this franchise until the point when Sean McDermott walked through the door. I don't have any faith that the Pegulas know what they are doing at all. I respect them keeping the team in Buffalo but when you look down the road at their running of the Sabres I think the reality is they are bad sports owners who lucked out getting McDermott and then eventually Beane into the building and letting them run the team. If they had hired Vance Joseph, Anthony Lynn, Frank Reich or any of the other bums they interviewed in that cycle or Keith Butler who Whaley was pushing them to interview this franchise would likely still be spinning its wheels trying to nose a game above .500 every year. That doesn't, before anyone says this is my argument, mean McDermott gets a free pass forever. He doesn't. And fear that the Pegulas would screw up the next hire (their history says they probably will) shouldn't stop them moving on from McDermott and Beane if it gets to that stage.

He doesn't scout the players. Every time you see a scouting box shot from the Combine it is Beane and his staff. McDermott goes for the interviews to get under the skin of them as people.

Brandon Beane has answered this twice and said not and I think they were pretty straight answers. I don't get any sense at all that they are planning to trade for a guy before the season. In season pre-deadline? Possibly. I'd be surprised if anything happens between now and September.

They will not trade for a receiver.

He has a chance of sticking on the PS with those numbers. There is probably no better landing spot for an undersized, athletic linebacker than the Bills. They value those guys higher than most teams.

They also didn't have Patrick Mahomes in their way.

He is a starter. But he is also a complintary player not a feature guy. He is a starting slot receiver with excellent YAC skills.

It is the old only one chance to make a first impression and while he wobbled early that run from rookie year to sophomore year definitely stands out in minds. It did in mine to be honest. Only when I went back and actually crunched the numbers did I realise once you get beyond that period he has been as you say, above average, not great.

He went 35/37 on FGs between middle of his rookie year and mid 2nd season. That is where the impression comes from. Not saying it is right or wrong but after some wobbles at the start of his rookie year he then wae pretty excellent for a period and that impression lasts.

I am pretty convinced there was a minor injury issue with Bass that lingered all year last year. He was never himself and the Bills were way more conservative using him than they have been in the past whereby anything within 55 they were willing to try. Then he missed kicks and I think his confidence dipped. Kickers are funny beasts year to year. They can have down years then rebound and be among the best in the league the next year. I think that is the Bills hope and if there was an injury niggle then I understand that thinking. But if he struggles in year next year they need to be willing to pull the chord in season.

I think the standard practice on later year picks is #16 in the round after (i.e. right in the middle) but that is a very rough guide because in reality teams look at who they are trading with and try and guesstimate is this a team with a likely top 10 pick. Or a team with a likely bottom 10 pick etc.

Yea he was a kind of 1 year sticking plaster there for Carolina. Who until drafting Ekwonu (who also isn't the answer btw) had this crazy record of something like 8 different starting left tackles in 8 seasons. The 2015 offensive line was an anomoly for the Panthers. Mainly on the back of the two guards - Norwell and Turner - who they drafted the year before both having career years either side of Ryan Kalil. The tackles were Oher and Remmers (neither of whom were great and who both got smoked endlessly in the Superbowl) who just managed to hold up enough.

He was better.

It isn't that for me. It is just I don't rate Diontae Johnson.

“Look, this game, it’s so hard to be good year in and year out and you just more than anything you have to have a roster that can handle the physicality of this game and the injuries. ... So when we thought about this opportunity long and hard and to infuse not just the picks but the cap space over the next few years, it just made a lot of sense to us and I think it worked out for both." "We’re gonna have a lot of young guys play football for us this fall. There is going to be a transition period. But after the draft ended and from the time they’ve been here through the rookie minicamp, we’ve been certainly impressed with them and their attitudes." Both of those quotes are Brett Veach after trading Tyreek Hill in the 2022 offseason. 2022 was supposed to be a transition year for them and they were not good a lot of the year. But they bucked the trend, their rookies balled out, they got a bit of luck with the Damar situation giving them homefield throughout the playoffs and Mahomes was clutch when they needed him to be. I mean Veach had been GM for exactly one draft when they fired Sutton.

I agree on Karlaftis. Disagree on Sneed. I think he is a legit corner. He is one of the best matchup guys around.

Bit like the 2022 Eagles. They beat nobody.