GunnerBill

Hmm interesting thought exercise. Here is my take: Position Draft FA + Trades Notes Quarterback A C+ Josh obvious stud. Think he has done a reasonably well with the vet backups he has landed in recent FA rounds Running Back B D Singletary and Cook have been good starters from day 2 of the draft. However, a third day two pick at the position (Moss) washed out. And if you are investing day 1 or 2 capital at a low value position like RB they have to hit. FA role players have generally been no more than JAGS. O Line C B- Miss on his highest drafted OL (Ford) who he traded up for hurts. Brown seems to have turned it around and Cybo was a decent rookie. Mixed bag in FA but more good (Williams, Morse, McGovern, Spain - for a bit) than bad though Saffold was an obvious mistake that could have been avoided IMO. Tight End B+ E Dawson Knox is a good all around tight end who was one of the most productive redzone tight ends in football in 2021 and 2022, Kincaid had a top 10 all time rookie tight end season. His biggest FA shot was Tyler Kroft back in 2019 and he majorly underperfomed his contract. Wide Receiver C A- Hard to score the draft. He has underprioritised the position there, but two of his day 3 shots - Gabe and Khalil developed into NFL starting receivers so you have to factor that in. Diggs alone makes the pro personnel grade an A (Brown, Beasley and Sanders factor in too) but I've nicked a half point back for the Kelvin Benjamin trade and some of the second tier FAs. D Line C+ D+ Mixed bag in the draft. Oliver a stud. Groot a good starter. AJE developed into a good rotational rusher years 3 and 4 but probably still underperformed his round 2 status. Boogie miss hurts and no elite talent despite the investment. From FA its mainly misses (and some big $$ ones) Floyd and Jones apart. Linebacker B N/A Bernard hitting last year helps this grade. Edmunds while he never quite justified his pick, was a 5 year starter. They have barely used FA at the spot beyond STers. Even their backups - Dodson, Spector etc have been draftees or UDFAs. Corner C- C+ Had some success finding starting calibre players with late round picks / UDFAs - Wallace, Jackson and Benford etc - but looks like a big miss on his one premium pick at the spot (and a confusing process given the obvious scheme question). Douglas a good trade, Vontae less said the better. Safety N/A D Bishop is the first pick before round 6 spent at the position. So that's a TBC. Hyde and Poyer were not Beane pickups. I'm not as in love with Rapp as some and they gave up a pick two years ago to bring Marlow (a total JAG) back and then barely used him.

He is a B for me. I think he is one of the best GMs in the league at identifying players who can play in this league and building a roster strategically with depth. The reason he isn't an A is he has struggled to find elite game changers. I know, he hasn't drafted high since 2019 and the two very early picks he made - Josh in 2018 and then Ed Oliver in 2019 are his two most impactful in terms of game changing talents (fair gap between the two, but point stands). However, he has had a LOT of draft picks now. He has made 44 picks as the Bills GM (excluding the ones this spring yet to have a chance to make an impact). Allen stands well alone as #1 as any elite QB always does, I'd put Ed Oliver #2 and Taron Johnson #3. But who is #4? Gabe Davis? James Cook? Dawson Knox? Rousseau? And while Ed is very good (better than most fans believe) he remains a tick below elite for me and Taron is a top 5 nickel corner but in terms of positional value that isn't necessarily a dial mover. It is why he has had to spend big assets (cap and picks) on the likes of Diggs and Von Miller to try and bring that elite sparkle that all championship teams need. I like Brandon, like him a lot. He talks really well, I think he is pretty candid (sometimes without meaning to be) and he comes across as pretty authentic. It isn't easy, I accept that. But 44 picks - one elite talent. That is what stops me giving him an A.

Agreed, I always said the 2017 tear down was a choice not the only route. But it wasn't just that they drafted Josh. Tre, Dion, Milano and Taron also came from those first two draft classes and they got Poyer and Hyde in the McDermott free agency period of 2017 too. Of course Josh mattered most, QBs always do, but having ripped apart the old core they were pretty successful in building a new one. They are now right at another transition point from that core to the next one, they need to get that right too.

Oh I agree. He was dealt a bad hand. Landed with Marrone by Buddy, then involved in two coaching searches where they hired against his advice. But he was someone who fell in love a bit with skillset absentia of some of the more fundamental building blocks of a successful roster.

Sammy was indicative of the Doug Whaley approach. He was a good talent spotter and Sammy was a very talented boy. But Whaley really looked no deeper than talent. He didn't ever build a team because he never appreciated what it takes to build a team. You need talent. But you need application, you need cohesion, you need a collective sense of purpose. Sammy had the injuries too and that hurt him. But his personality into a locker room that didn't have any of the culture you need to succeed was ultimately a poor fit. If the Bills drafted Sammy Watkins now into this culture (and he had better injury luck) who knows how it would have gone? But I think he'd have had a better chance of succeeding.

Fair play to Josh. His mechanics were noticeably worse last year than any year since 2019. Good on him for going back to work on it.

I think that is their plan and they have actually done some of it against KC in the last two regular season matchups. The problem is they have played the playoffs the last three years missing major pieces in their secondary and with guys hobbled. It's really hard to play a ton of man and be successful when you are down to your backups. They have to be better at stopping the elite offenses in the playoffs, but part of that for a defense that is built on fundamentals and chemistry rather than elite difference makers, is going to rely on being luckier with health.

I disagree. I think that Barca side while exceptional sometimes gets overhyped and that Madrid side gets underappreciated. They have won 6 of the last 11 Champions Leagues. I agree that overall that Barca side had more talent than the Madrid sides that have won 6 Champions Leagues, but I think the midfields are a LOT closer than people like to accept. Modric and Kroos have been awesome for over a decade.

I would have. The problem in Pittsburgh is Quarterbacking not coaching.

Only incoming trade I could see is for a kicker if Bass struggles in camp and pre-season. I imagine he will find someone near the bottom of the roster to flip for a day 3 pick going out though. Imagine a lineman or a linebacker.

I'm not. I am not saying because it happened to OJ Howard it is likely to happen again. What I am saying is it proves that if a FA signing stinks in camp a relatively small amount of guaranteed money won't stop the Bills making a decision.

And people were indignant that offseason when some of us started to say Howard was not a lock. People including Sal C on WGR who only softened his stance in the final 48 hours before cutdowns when someone had clearly given him the wink he switched to "And I gotta tell you guys, I think OJ Howard could be in trouble here." Less than a week after basically ridiculing a fan who called in for saying the same thing.

At this time a year the arguments go round and round because the news cycle isn't fast enough to move us onto something else. OTAs is the part of the NFL calendar I have just tuned out. When you have a new coach or a rookie QB they are somewhat interesting. When you have McDermott in year 8 and Josh in year 7 you kinda know how the team is going to look and play. Sure, we have new coordinators on both sides but the defense is still going to look like a Sean McDermott defense and the offense is still going to look like a Josh Allen offense.

I wasn't not focussing on the adult. But it is still a weird element to the story.

Iniesta and Xavi = 8 Champions Leagues combined Kroos and Modric = 12 Champions Leagues combined Narrative is a B word.

That isn't how I read it but if that is true fair enough.

If a guy told me he had photos of him ***** my mum I wouldn't go out of my way to find them.

The even odder part of the story is the woman deleted the image from her son's phone but he logged onto his icloud specifically to view it. Oedipus theory alive and well.

I definitely experienced that with Arsenal's Invincibles in 2003/04. 49 league games undefeated and you just never expected them to lose a game. The other thing that team was great at was being 2 nil up inside 25 minutes. They took the drama out of so many games.

Safety. Because unless Bishop can win a job in camp it is the weakest unit we will put on the field week 1.

FIFY

I think Dane Jackson might count here. He had some stretches as a starter, most notably in 2022, but the Bills never committed to him as a starter and he was mainly a backup but a pretty good player all the same. Chris Hogan I think someone already mentioned. Karlos Williams (though only for one season), Ryan Groy the classic backup interior OL who everyone thinks should start..... until he actually starts.... there's a few just off the top of my head from the last decade or so.

Yep. Very true. It is part of AJE's issue to me though that I think he is actually at his best in wider alignments where he can use the get off and speed. I think he will struggle to fully establish himself as a starter because I am not sure in the Bills "base" front if I can use that term I think he has a tendency to get swallowed up and / or lose his lane discipline which we know McDermott hates more than anything.

And he isn't a top DE either. He is a good pass rusher. His all around game isn't close to the level of the top guys. I suppose there is a parallel to be drawn there to AJE... but I am not expecting him to now suddenly start putting up double digit sack numbers.

Clayton isn't really a rugby player though. It would be like my signing for the Bills and being described as a soccer player. He played in the 8th tier of English Rugby. I played in the 7th tier of English soccer. And trust me soccer is a LOT deeper in terms of the talent pool. Clayton's tried everything. He was a pretty talented sprinter as a kid, he had trials with a couple of pro soccer clubs on the back of that speed, then he has tried boxing and rugby but as of yet what he has been is a freakishly large and athletic human who hasn't quite found a sport to harness those talents. Good call on the All Blacks though. Particularly the team between their two World Cup wins in 2011 and 2015. That 4 year period they played 61 test matches, won 56, drew 2 (both with Australia) and lost 3 (one each to England, Australia and South Africa). Richie McCaw and Dan Carter are the two best players I have ever seen play the game and then they had Sam Whitelock, Aaron Smith, Owen Franks, Ma'a Nonu who are all in contention for top 5 all time at their positions.