Logic

Because when a player is cut, he is subject to waivers. Perhaps they liked Clay enough that they didn't want to risk losing out on him. I'm not saying I agree with them -- I know nothing about Clay, so it's hard to rate the move. I'm just saying that it's better to guarantee a player is on your roster by trading an asset for him that you didn't want to hang on to ANYWAY than it is to hope no one above you on the waiver order puts in a claim.

I'll say a few things for them: 1.) They have been tasked with building a team to compete for the long term. Not just a team to squeak into a Wild Card spot every now and again. 2.) They seem to have a definite and united vision for what it will take to accomplish that task. 3.) They are pursuing that goal with impressive gumption and fearlessness. As the press goes, "they're betting on themselves" BIG TIME. What they are doing may or may not work, but no one can say that they aren't attacking their plan head-on. 4.) They seem to be both able and unafraid to get assets back in return for players they don't see as long term fits. Ragland and Seymour were likely to be cut, but instead, Beane turned them into 4th and 7th round picks and a kick returner. Again, time will tell whether they know what they're doing, but it's hard not to be intrigued and cautiously optimistic, based on the decisiveness they have shown.

Seems pretty clear to me that McBeane want to build for the future, but are not doing so in a way that includes "tanking" this season. If they were, they would get draft picks for McCoy, Clay, Taylor, Dareus, etc. Reading the recent Ringer interview with McDermott, though, I would say that the primary purpose of this season is to build a culture and determine who fits in with said culture. They're gonna use the season to see what they've got, basically. While I expect them to compete hard and never throw in the towel or "race to the bottom", I also expect about a 6-10 season and an extremely interesting offseason to follow. The 2018 draft will make or break this regime, period. I fully anticipate the Bills drafting a QB in round 1. That makes this year little more than a transitional season.

More fake news below? Nothing to see here, right? At this point, I'm not even sure it's possible for Trumpsters to pull their heads out of the sand and realize the damage this man is doing to America's reputation abroad or the danger he has put our country in by glad-handing with a murderous autocrat. http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/09/donald-trump-junior-russia-240339 Donald Trump Jr. confirmed Sunday that he met last year with a Russian lawyer who had ties to the Kremlin, saying she told him at the June 2016 meeting she had information that could damage Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. President Donald Trump’s oldest son said in a statement that an acquaintance from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which was held in Moscow, had asked him to meet “with an individual who I was told might have information helpful to the campaign.”

I had this thought as well, but I read a tweet from Andy Benoit today stating that he expects Darby to be BETTER in McDermott's defense. Certainly interesting, since I think of Darby more as a man-to-man specialist.

With the amount of money the Bills have left, I'd like to see them sign TWO safeties. Boston, Byrd, Gilchrist. Take your pick. I'd also like to see them trade a late round pick for Calvin Pryor and see how he does at nickel LB, like Mark Barron before him.

Darby White Wright Seymour Johnson Sayles

Congrats to Cardale. Of all the QBs on the Bills roster, Cardale seems to have the most sheer physical talent. It would be really awesome if he made a big step in year two and prompted a viable QB competition with Taylor and Peterman by 2018.

This post is illogical. There is no merit to the things you are saying. Usually, opinions can't be wrong. Somehow, in this instance, yours is.

Thanks for the report. They'd better be right about Dawkins. If he turns out to be a quality starting right tackle, then it's hard to fault them for moving up to get him. If he DOESN'T turn out to be a quality starter, they'll really regret missing out on that extra third rounder. The one thing that I really still don't like is the lack of safety depth on this team. If they could just sign a veteran linebacker and safety -- say, Gerald Hodges and Jairus Byrd -- I'd feel MUCH better.

Fair enough. But in the case of first jump up, the Bills were leaping SEVERAL teams who could reasonably be expected to take WRs. It wasn't as if they jumped just one spot in front of the Panthers. They could also explain it by saying that their WR coach, Zay's college coach, convinced them not to miss out on him. More importantly, though, this seems like a really difficult thing to prove. It also doesn't seem like the Panthers have any desire to push the issue, with the Panthers GM brushing off the question and Rivera openly joking about giving McD a hard time for it.

Wolfe and DeCosta, as much as I like them, are probably not realistic options. Both seem to have hand-shake deals in place to replace the current, getting-up-there-in-age GMs of their respective teams.

I may be extremely naive (probably the case), but it's hard to believe that A.) Beane would be dumb/disloyal enough to divulge Panthers draft information B.) McDermott, with all his talk about character and integrity, would call Beane up and say "Hey man, would you mind screwing over your current employer and breaking league rules in order to give me the upper hand in this draft?" The whole thing seems far-fetched. If anything, I think McDermott just intimately knew the Panthers' team needs due to having been a member of their organization during scouting season and being a detail-oriented person.

If Decosta and Wolfe aren't realistic options, give me Veach.

Ditto. I think that in this scheme, with his father as his position coach, and now that he finally seems healthy, he would excel. And most importantly, as you stated, it would free up Hyde to be the swiss army knife that he SHOULD be in this defense. Hyde, to me, is not an every down classic safety. We need to add someone that IS so that Hyde can do his thing and maximize his value to the defense.

I feel good about the depth chart at the cornerback position. Darby White Seymour Wright Johnson Cromartie (Hyde will play nickel at times) Now if they can just go get a veteran safety, I'll feel much better about things.

They apparently signed two UDFA safeties, but both seem about the same quality as the guys already on the roster behind the top two. Unless somebody seriously surprises in camp, they need another qualified guy at the position IMO. That's just it. They DID add more draft picks, but then lost them again by trading back up. The trade DOWN was fine, but I sort of would have preferred they didn't trade up in the second and lose that extra 3rd. That would have been a prime spot to take a legit safety prospect. I would have felt much more comfortable drafting a safety rather than a RT, to be honest. Mills can be improved upon, Henderson and Kuoandjio have, in the past, shown they can be decent spot starters. Behind Hyde and Poyer, though? Nada. And even Poyer himself isn't anything to get excited about.

Was not taking a safety in one of the best safety classes in recent memory. I realize that with all the Bills' needs, they weren't going to be able to select a player at every position of need. That being said, the depth behind Hyde and Poyer is non-existent right now. If one were to get hurt, we'd have the likes of Jonathan Dowling or Gary Shamiel starting. Who? Exactly. Furthermore, I was hoping for one more legitimate safety so that Hyde could slide down to big nickel on certain down and distances. Any worthwhile FA safeties still sitting on the market? I have some faith that things will be okay at WLB, but at safety? Eesh. Frighteningly shallow talent pool on the Bills roster currently.

Every year, we see tons of mock drafts, and they all wind up being extremely different than reality. One exercise I like better is to look back AFTER the draft, once it is known who was available at each pick, and compare who you would have drafted if you were GM. I should make it clear that I have no problem with the Bills draft. I liked it. I just think it's fun to compare your own tastes with the picks made by the Bills. That said, here's mine. To start with, I wouldn't have traded down from 10. Why? Well... RD 1 - FS Malik Hooker Potential as an elite center fielder would have been too much for me to pass on RD 2 - LB Zach Cunningham Instant starting WLB RD 3 - CB Cordrea Tankersley - Would compete to start at #2 CB immediately RD 5 - HB Brian Hill - Competes with Jonathan Williams to be HB2 RD 5 - WR Shelton Gibson - WR to compete with Holmes/Brown for WR 2/3 RD 5 - QB Nathan Peterman - Good developmental QB RD 6 - OT Adam Bisnowaty - Won't be ready immediately, but has tools to start one day The obvious negative to my alternate draft is that we do not have an extra 1st round pick next year and we do not as effectively address WR. That being said, I think what I laid out would better help the team in the immediate term. S, LB, and CB needs capably filled. Add running back depth and more of a developmental tackle. Holmes and Brown are adequate as WR2 and WR3 for one season if Gibson doesn't impress in camp. I do not pretend that my draft is any better than what the Bills did, as that's impossible to know at this point. Just stating how I would've picked. And you?

Why Malik Hooker? He has the looks of an elite center fielder for the next 10 years.

http://www.shreveporttimes.com/story/sports/college/lsu/2015/08/08/became-lsu-tradition/31352635/ How the No. 18 became an LSU tradition Glenn Guilbeau – gguilbeau@gannett.comPublished 5:18 p.m. CT Aug. 8, 2015 | Updated 3:33 p.m. CT Aug. 9, 2015 BATON ROUGE – LSU director of athletic training Jack Marucci clicked on the NFL Network to catch some of a preseason game and could not believe his ears. The Philadelphia Eagles were playing, and general manager Howie Roseman was being interviewed in the TV booth. The subject was defensive tackle Bennie Logan, a third-round draft choice out of LSU. But that’s not what knocked Marucci over. LSU has players all over the NFL....

Brian Burke‏ @bburkeESPN Follow More BUF really makes out. 1816 to 1300 JJ's with a 106% discount rate. 12 AV to 6 AV with an inf discount rate on my AV-based model (h/t @pfref) Football Perspective‏ @fbgchase Follow More KC traded 27, 91 and 2018 1st to move up to 10. If you value 2018 1st at 24th ovrl, BUF gets 170 cents on the dollar in my chart, 120 on JJ. Warren Sharp‏ @SharpFootball Follow More Bills (#27, 91 and 1st rd in 2018) got the better deal in #NFLDraft trade w Chiefs (#10) by getting 36.1 draft points & losing 19.9.

Fair enough. Here's the key, though: The BILLS didn't seem to think that there was a QB worth taking a risk on at 10. Maybe you felt that way, but the Bills clearly didn't, or they would have pulled the trigger. The most telling indicator regarding their feelings about the QBs in this draft, in my opinion, was that shortly after meeting/working out most of the QBs, they signed TJ Yates. It was as if they looked at what was out there in the draft and said "nah, not this year". So what did they do? Drafted defense and acquired extra capital for next year. Time will tell whether QB is the pick next year or whether they even have a shot at a decent one, but it seems clear to me that they didn't view this year's QBs as franchise material. We'll see whether or not they were right in a few years.

OP's numbers are not what I've seen elsewhere. I have seen two different sources claim that the Bills come out ahead in the math.

Man... EVERY SINGLE YEAR leading up to the draft, ALL I hear from Bills fans is "the Bills should trade down!". This was ESPECIALLY true this year with all of the needs they have and only having six picks. I also always hear how the Bills should pick up a future 1st round pick so that they can have two 1sts to go after a franchise QB. So wouldn't you know it? The Bills actually trade down this year, add draft capital in THIS draft AND a 1st round pick in a loaded 2018 QB draft year, still get a top cornerback (their biggest need)...and many Bills fans are bitching. Some things never change. I don't know. Adding a pothead from Alabama to a roster that ALREADY has a pothead from Alabama seems like a recipe for double suspension disaster to me.