GunnerBill

And to be clear I am not hating on the draft. The most important part of the draft is the premium picks the first two days and I think Beane did as good a job with them as he has since 2018. I am a bit more ciritical of his approach to the vet market in terms of FA and trades but I have no doubt the Bills will win the division and win a playoff game or two as long as Josh is healthy. My worry is that we will end up facing KC having the ball at the end, for a 3rd year in a row and not be able to get it done. And I am less persuaded that just upgrading the defense is the answer there. That isn't how the Bills - Chiefs games are. It won't matter whether we play a 32-29 game or a 20-17 game. The result will come down to the final 3 minutes and I think all of us would rather in that situation the ball be in Josh's hand than in Pat's. And then we gotta make the critical plays. Do we yet have the guys to do it?

I don't disagree. Was a tough year to be in that market. The reason I'd have spent an early day 3 pick on one is in the hope you might at least get someone who can come in for a specific package of plays that threatens that and where he has to be accounted for in the hope it dictates to defenses. Cooper gave us that after his signing last year. Teams felt when he was out there that they at least needed to defend the vertical outside routes and it opened other things up. My concern remains the Baltimore week 4 gameplan. Do we have enough to counter it if teams just say "have the outside, you are not hurting us there"?

The ones who do it consistently sure are.

The ones who can do it consistently, yes. The Bills only two potential options for addressing that this offseason were a trade for DK and/or a trade up and take a swing at Golden as a projection of a guy who might. But there are guys who can do it who are less all around consistent guys. That is what John Brown was for us in 2019 for example.

And for a first round pick not to be invested in you a buy that. For a fourth round pick not to be invested I buy it less.

As I mentioned earlier he doesn't really get off press on the outside and his lack of length hurts there. Equally if he doesn't win quickly at the start of the route his lack of size makes him easier to box out as a defender. I think he can do some downfield stuff but you have to scheme it up well and get him against advantageous looks. What the Bills still lack even if they sign Moore is the guy who can go down the field outside and win even when everyone on the defense knows that is what the Bills want to do.

I think Palmer plays faster than his 40 time, but he is more a guy who wins with his routes than just that vertical speed. Look if they can add Moore I will feel a lot better going into this year about the WRs than I did going into last year before the Cooper trade but I'm still not sure they have that true downfield outside guy I really wanted them to find.

There is more to being a vertical, downfield receiver on the outside than speed. A bit part is getting off press and his short arms restrict him there. I think you can do some stuff with him vertically if you can get him in advantageous situations vs bracket zone coverages but he isn't going to be a consistent enough outside vertical guy to back teams off the line with any regularity. That isn't saying don't sign him. I like the idea. Just be realistic about what it is.

He is a slot but he isn't Khalil who can only play slot. His route tree outside is more limited but he gives you something there at least.

I just don't see a route to solve the vertical passing game at this point of the NFL calendar. So having at least another legit WR on the roster would be more good than bad in that context.

Yea, more an inside guy than an outside guy, though he has played both.

I don't mind it as an idea. He doesn't raise the ceiling but he would give us 5 legit NFL receivers whereas right now we have 4.

So I tend to look at the 10 yard split and the explosiveness scores (from the jumping) as a decent indicator for that initial burst.

I think the acceleration matters more than the top speed. It's the burst off the line. At the top of the route it is about understanding leverage, route running and the crispness of your breaks that dictate separation more than speed IMO. Where speed matters is early in the route - it is explosiveness.

While we definitely still hit needs, this draft through days 1 and 2 was the closest he has ever got to BPA imo. I had all 3 players within my top 10 at the point they were selected and when you move out the guys where were sliding for non-football reasons Hairston and Sanders were top 5 at the point they were picked. This wasn't reaching on Kaiir Elam or Keon Coleman or Terrel Bernard etc.

He didn't have any involvement in 2017. He wasn't here. And yea I would remove Kelvin too as Beane was still in football ops then. Which goes back to my point yesterday.... 2015 was his first year in the evaluation business. But the other point on Beane is the two guys he learnt under in terms of GMs he worked with were Marty Hurney and Dave Gettleman. Marty Hurney was Panthers GM for 15 years over two spells. In that time prime draft assets spent on receiver: 1 first rounder 3 second rounders 2 third rounders That is 6 premium picks across 15 drafts. Dave Gettleman ran five drafts in Carolina. He spent ONE pick across five drafts on a receiver. Not one premium pick. One pick total. Kelvin Benjamin was the only receiver he drafted as Panthers GM. It's philosophical. Beane comes from a tradition of receiver not being a priority position. The guys he learnt under didn't value it. He doesn't value it. He has told us himself he believes Quarterback, trenches and defensive playmakers are the priority. Not taking a flier on a day 3 guy this past weekend isn't the biggest deal in the world. But I worry about what it tells us.... which is that Brandon Beane still just doesn't think the position is a priority. He'd rather have blocking tight ends and swiss army knife DBs.

She posted to social media a year after the event. Her first response was to report to the police, the university and seek medical help. The post came a year later after the investigations stalled, presumably from a place of anger and frustration that more wasn't done. That doesn't make it true, btw, but in terms of understanding why she did that I think it provides important context. Posting on social media was a last resort after other avenues to pursue justice, as she saw it, had closed off.

I thought day 2 was definitely possible. I didn't have him in my final first round mock. Had someone taken him in the third round, I'd shrug. But going round 5? I think there were things other than how good a football player and leader is this kid at play. That is where I have some sympathy with him and I thought in the context of that.... he handled himself pretty well over the weekend.

I don't think those examples are analogous to the Sandera situation though in all fairness. I understand the point that you are making. Once you accept there are things that exempt you from the talent meritocracy where you draw the line becomes a subjective question of judgment. I suppose my point with Shedeur is I don't think the line was drawn in the right place and I don't think all of that was his fault.

I don't care if he told them all the coaches are orange frogs. There is no world in which Dillon Gabriel should be picked before him in a football related activity. I get, the kid has an arrogance and it put people off. But you can't call yourself a true meritocracy and then pick some of the bums that went before him. And I say this as someone who doesn't even particularly rate him and didn't think his film belonged in the first round.

I think there are a lot of people in the NFL who really don't look Deion and unfortunately Shedeur paid for some of that. He isn't blameless himself, sure.

Well done to Shedeur for taking the kid's call to apologise. If anything my level of respect for him went up this weekend. I don't think what happened to him was entirely fair and I think in the main he handled it well. EDIT: did you guys hear the Chase Lundt media call? Apparently he was prank called too. Some people need to grow the ***** up.

The first I heard about the sexual assault allegations against Hairston dating back to 2021 was in the welcome presser on Friday. Beane said the Bills and the league had done due diligence and were confident that allegations had been investigated and dealt with at the time. My take on it is this: it looks like the young lady concerned did everything you would properly expect an alleged victim to have done at the time. It isn't just being mentioned now because he has been drafted. She reported things to the police at the time, attended a medical facility, and raised it formally with the university. She also posted about it a year later in 2022, before Max had come to any sort of national prominence, so I do not think it is fair for anyone to sit here and accuse her of being a money grabber or in it for the fame or anything of that sort. However, it also appears that an investigation was carried out, the university and the police looked into the matter and ultimately no charges were brought. Am I saying that means Max is definitely not guilty of the accusations made? Nope. But as I say in all of these cases we in western civilised society have justice systems for a reason. We have the principle of innocent until proven guilty for a reason. The way we determine guilt, attach labels like "rapist" to individuals and respond punitively is through the justice system. We have to trust it to do its work. In this case it seems to have concluded that there was insufficient evidence to substantiate the allegations. That does not mean they didn't happen, but it means that Hairston is an innocent man and should be treated as such. The court of public opinion, social media vigilantism and mob rule must be rejected at all costs. It's concerning to hear this, of course it is. But the young man deserves the benefit of the doubt.

I just contrast that strategy with Tampa Bay. Who priort to Thursday evening were on an equal streak with the Bills of no Wide Receivers in round 1 since we picked Sammy and they picked Mike (nope, still not over it). They have Evans, they have Godwin, they have Sterling Shephard as a vet who has done some things in this league and they have Jalen McMillan who had a good rookie year. Yet they still didn't stand pat when Egbuka fell to them. Now maybe if Egbuka falls to us we take him too (not convinced, but maybe). Just feels like one team was going "we've got four serviceable guys" and one was saying "we still need more".

I think it is a bit the result of Brandon not having a scouting background. He doesn't have a "type" at positions the way guys who have been around it for years have. Their type at DB is dictated by McDermott's specifications. They have developed a type at OL only since Kromer arrived. Tremaine Edmunds was Leslie Frazier's type of middle linebacker. When Dennison was here they wanted big bodied receivers. Then Dabes wanted shiftier route runners. Then Dorsey wanted guys to run down the field. Brady wants YAC guys. I get it. You have to get players that fit what your coaches want. And Beane is good at that and because he is good at that is probably why he has so few true busts. But how much does his own evaluation skill show on the roster? I'm not sure much. He is a good leader, a good strategic roster builder. But I don't think on pure talent evaluation he is a top 15 GM. It is the other qualities that make him a top 10 guy overall.