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Didn't he also have a really hard time grasping an NFL playbook? I could be misremembering but I thought I'd read that his football IQ wasn't great but teams figured they could dumb it down for him.

McBeane has made it clear that they plan to build this team through the draft, so they're not going to trade away one of their very first draft picks. Especially not a guy they jumped up in the second round to get. Also... c'mon man.

Don't forget Blaine Gabbert and Christian Ponder. 2011 & 2013 drafted QBs were obviously legends. One difference with Manuel and Allen is that Allen looks to throw it and try to make a play that way as opposed to EJ who will take off running at the first sign of trouble. And that's mainly because the person he trusts on the field the most is himself, which is an odd contradiction for him. He won't trust himself to push the ball through tight windows but when the play breaks down and something has to happen he'll go, "I gotta run, forget throwing or even looking down field." I do, however, put some of the running mentality EJ has/had on Marrone and Hackett. Those dudes have literally said they wouldn't throw the ball if they didn't have to. And during EJ's rookie year, he was consistently coached to make one or two half-field reads and instantly take off running if the receive wasn't open.

Ah, he has clearly changed it since the last time I saw, but all through the season it was him in a Bills uni. Well, either way, good luck to the guy.

Not that it means much but a few weeks back someone tweeted something at him like, "Yo, come back to Buffalo and help us win this AFC East!" And he responded with, "You never know, this is a crazy business." His Twitter avatar is him in a Bills uniform. Again, doesn't mean much. But it could signify that if the Bills did call, he'd listen. During the season he sounded like he turned the corner in the maturity department a little bit. But on the other hand, if I'm him and a team trades up to get me, and I go out in my first game and get used as a decoy and don't have any targets, I'm probably saying something too. I'd be confused as hell. "This team traded an extra first round pick to draft me, and now they want me to just take coverage off the other receivers? Eff that, I want the ball." He's a receiver, they all want the ball. I really didn't have an issue when he spoke out about needing more targets. Hearing about him being bummed that his stats were low even in a victory is just immaturity and it seems to be something he's gotten over. I think the early injuries he suffered as a rookie have stuck in his head since then and he hasn't been able to fully shake it and play fast and loose like he should. Just my assumption. He'll get paid somewhere. 99.4% chance it will not be in Buffalo.

The skills are there, just need to be refined. That's one reason I can see the Bills going for him. They can mold him into their vision of a franchise QB. Obviously his arm stands out, as does his completion percentage (for the wrong reasons) but he really had no one decent to throw to plus the guys he had thrown to dropped a lot of passes. He does bail on clean pockets a little too much from what I've seen. He's been a really intriguing prospect to evaluate. I think a lot of people tend to judge him on what they've seen so far, but remember that pro scouts are judging on the potential he shows. They see things that can be corrected and from everything I've read he sounds like a smart, coachable kid. This is why he's going to go pretty early.

Whaley probably should've topped out as a Pro Personnel Director or something similar. He is a good scout. He's not a good team builder. He probably would've been fine as a guy who was second or third in command to the GM. From what I can recall, he was retained through the draft because by the time they canned Rex and brought on McDermott, Whaley and his staff had already done all the heavy lifting to gear up for the draft and free agency. I'm totally speculating here but I wouldn't doubt that McDermott was informed upon his hiring that Whaley would be let go, but I think they may have given McDermott the choice of, "Do you want us to move on from him now or after the draft?" To bring in a new GM and personnel staff at that point would have been a huge undertaking and probably would've left them quite unprepared for FA and the draft. So they probably agreed that, let's leave Doug and his staff to finish their work but we're giving Sean the final say on everything right now. And that was probably a tough thing for Whaley, being told to finish his work for the draft but then as soon as the draft is done, so are you. He was professional about it and did what he could to help and then they said adios. I think he'll wind up in the league again at some point but again, as a director or other executive, not a GM.

Kenny Davis

They made him some offers after 2016 but he's grossly overvaluing himself and he's put some not so good things on film for coaches to see. Back half of 2016 the dude dialed it way down and played for self preservation. He wasn't flying all over the field like he was to start the season and by the end of the year he felt like an afterthought. Decent player. Is he in the same tier as Kuechly, Wagner or Ogletree... not even close.

K.

Even without Davis signing here I'm positive they weren't going corner in the first this year. If Davis had passed I'm sure they would have continued trying to bring back Gaines or would have gone after a few players in free agency.

Great pickup for them. Gaines will sign elsewhere but Davis is probably an upgrade, right? I'm sure McDermott is excited to have that type of experience in his secondary. White, Davis, Hyde, Poyer...not trying to go full homer but that's easily a top seven group. It's been said he's 100% healthy. His health was the main reason behind his fallout with Indy. He elected to have surgery on his groin while Indy wanted him to play through it all season.

Both Vic and Gabriel, like 'em or not, are connected and have sources. However, they have no way to verify what's the real deal and what's BS. Given that Team McBeane have made it clear that they prefer to build this team through the draft, I'm inclined to agree with these two. Unless some type of way too good to pass up kinda deal comes at them, I don't expect a massive jump up. If they have their eye on a guy who happens to slide down past the top 10 or 15, then I think it becomes a bit more likely that they'd move up. If they do make a huge jump up, you know they're gonna get ripped for it somewhere. Maybe by Vic himself. Because we know someone out there will take a look at all the players Beane traded away to acquire their draft capital and convey it in a way that would say, "Bills give up two first rounders, a second and a fourth, and also lost all the players they traded to get those picks and any players they got in return (Gaines, Matthews) didn't re-sign! So, really, Buffalo gave up four picks plus Sammy Watkins, Ron Darby, Jordan Matthews and EJ Gaines. What a terrible, awful, horrible, wretched, no good trade! The Bills should be banned from the league for doing this." *Two seasons later, the player Buffalo traded up for leads them to a championship.* Media: (probably some bums like Schlop and the Bullfrog) "Still the worst draft day trade in the history of the universe- nay, the multiverse! Even in a world of infinite universes and timelines the Bills still sh*t the bed with this trade! Awful! Fire everyone!" Or something like that. Anywho, it's a solid draft for a lot of positions and they have a lot of spots to fill. I can't see them making all those trades last season and restructuring the team in their vision just to give up half of them for one guy.

He's had issues dating back to his teenage years. I read the reports and the texts when the investigation was happening several years ago and to me, he came off like a kid that was trying to fit in. He certainly didn't just sit back and become a target that those guys kept going after, he threw in his fair share of zingers. And that's all it was meant to be, guys giving each other sh*t in an alpha-male environment. Everyone deals with some kind of crap in life, whether it's some kind of addiction, a mental or physical health issue, incurable Bills fan syndrome, etc. The first step is always the hardest but there's no way he can say he hasn't been afforded plenty of opportunities to get help and work on his issues. He grew up in an affluent family with two Harvard graduates for parents. His father is a professor of criminal justice administration at Cal State and his mother is a corporate lawyer for Toyota. While he may have had all the material wants/needs while growing up, he felt like an outsider because he isn't your average, everyday middle-class American. I don't know if he was made to feel that way by other kids in school or if he just felt that way naturally. Either way, again, we all deal with our crap and at a certain point you figure out a way to work on it and manage it or you give in and let it consume you. I hope he can turn it around and realize his current train of thought will do no one any good, including him.

Usually someone would point out that Poe is better suited for NT in a 3-4 but he actually played over 70% of the snaps for Atlanta last year and they run a 4-3. Stats-wise he had his best year since 2013. But the reasons the Chiefs let him go in 2016 were because his asking price was quite high plus he's had a consistent back injury to deal with for a few years now. I don't know if he's an FA this season or not but I can't see McBeane viewing and valuing him as anything more than a rotational DL.

It being a USA Today article very likely means it could be a "BillsWire" piece. Those are generally written by amateur bloggers or just fans who are trying to get into sportswriting.

Gotta admire his heart but after what happened I don't think anyone would blame him if he decided to hang it up. I would if I were him. Even if he does make a full recovery I would still assume that no team physicians would clear him. He may fall into the same situation as Aaron Williams. He may fully recover and get himself in amazing shape and feel as though he can play but won't find a team that'll clear him.

I am serious. And don't call me Shirley.

Durability issues? Hahaha. He's one of the toughest players on this team. In a nine year career he has played in 133 out of 144 regular season games. He's never missed more than four games in one season. His position involves a higher injury rate than other positions and while he's had to deal with injuries he's played through them and still been effective. Dude sprains his ankle in the final regular season game of 2017 but still found a way to come back and play in the WC game against Jacksonville. This Bills Fanatics IG has never hit on any big news and they've never had any of their speculations or rumors picked up by larger outlets. It's been reported that Philly evidently called around the trade deadline hoping to reacquire McCoy but it seems like McBeane told them where to go with their offer. I presume that's where the "source" of their latest dookie-tossing comes from. Aside from being the best player on the team, he's a solid character guy and personifies a lot of what McDermott wants from his players. 30 years old or not, you can't question his ability, toughness and desire. He's embraced this city after the trade nearly shocked him out of playing football and he's been their MVP the last two seasons.

The outrage displayed by some fans over not gaining comp picks has been a bit ridiculous. Comp picks aren't as valuable or important as some would like to believe. I think some people just wanna see them head into the draft with 12 picks. Know who else heads into the draft with 10 or 12 picks every year? Cleveland. How's that working out for them... And yes, I'm well aware that the comp picks can be used in a trade. Other than that, the odds of finding a starter any time after rounds three or four are pretty low. So what's the better option? Sign a few mid/lower tier vets with experience or take a few rookies who will need a season or two to even reach the level of said vets? At the end of the day, the argument for comp picks over signing suitable free agents to fill some spots doesn't hold that much weight.

It's "throw crap at the wall and see what sticks" time of year. This Allbright dude gets quoted a lot but I've yet to see any of his "scoops" turn out to be true or even in the same ballpark as true. And I'm pretty sure the Bills have scouted just about every draft eligible QB for this year, Allen included. They were in on him earlier than most teams just like they were the first pro team to send scouts to go see Wentz while he was still at ND State. All sorts of things are gonna be thrown around between now and the draft. I still maintain that in order for them to make a massive leap up the board it's gonna have to be a ridiculously good deal. They aren't gonna sell out all of their draft capital and pull a Ditka. And they aren't gonna go ham in free agency and sign a ton of top tier free agents, they don't have the cap space. I just feel like it's going to be pretty tough for them to pull off a major trade to get their guy. It could happen, I mean, they have been stockpiling picks but if the cost of moving up equals both first round picks, one the twos, something from next year, when you factor in the players they traded to acquire said picks, the deal could potentially look like four or five picks, some which were gained via trading Watkins, Darby and Dareus, and while they got Gaines and Matthews in return, let's say those dudes don't re-sign here, so if you string it out like that it could look like, "Bills give up two first round picks, two second round picks and a sixth (players lost to gain picks equal Watkins, Darby, Dareus, Gaines and Matthews) for unknown QB commodity who might be good...someday." Kind of an oddball way to look at it but if they do make a trade, someone will figure it all out and find out just exactly what was lost versus what's being gained.

Great player, but most scouts (both the online community and pro scouts) feel like Zeke and Gurley were both better backs coming out of college. As talented as he or those other two guys are, teams don't sell the farm to jump up and grab a running back. Especially not with how the game is played today.

Last I read/saw, Richardson and Seattle were both said to have a fair amount of mutual interest in getting a deal done. I doubt Richardson fits the character mold they want here. And Gil Brandt may have 60+ years of experience in football but some of his claims in recent years make me question his opinions quite a bit. When he ranked Johnny Manziel his number one overall prospect (not number one overall QB, mind you, but in his opinion the best football player out of every 2014 prospect) I really started disregarding much of his stuff.

Where's Ferguson out of? And wasn't there some hype on the NC State kid? Ryan Finley or something... or did he choose to go back to school? Admittedly I am a bit out of the draft loop at the moment.

Ya, this here is something I noticed as well. It didn't help that he didn't have much of an OL in front of him or any real weapons to throw to but even when he has clean pockets he seems to get happy feet. The key word with Allen is potential. Clearly he has the physical assets and seems to have a decent mind for the game. His success is gonna depend heavily on the type of coaches and system he ends up with. A lot of people in the scouting community see him in the same way they saw Wentz. We'll see if those comparisons hold up. And as you said, it wouldn't be surprising if he went top 5/top 10 or slid down toward the end of the first. Either way, at this point there is just way too much hype for him not to go somewhere in the first.