Straight Hucklebuck

JACKSONVILLE Remember? He comes in and immediately throws a characteristic Nate style interception. Remember when Bills fans thought that Brian Brohm deserved his chance to start? I do.

I just love Bills fans who ride other fans for being "too negative" and then they pivot to this way the plan all along. Even though their beloved Coach McDermott and GM Beane say all the time that they are trying to win now. I think what you really are seeing is a Coach who honestly thought running the football and playing defense still wins in the NFL.

No its not. McDermott thinks you can pop-gun offense and play defense in 2018. There is nowhere to turn for offense except Josh Allen.

Good is good. And players that are good usually start showing they're good right away. Yes, Drew Brees came on like wild fire back in 2003/2004, or Alex Smith got better throughout his career. But most QBs start to show early on whether they have it or they don't. Bills fans made the same excuses about Trent Edwards for years - the line isn't good enough, the WRs aren't good enough, Jauron is telling him not to throw interceptions. In the end he never resurfaced in the NFL because he sucked. Same with JP Losman or EJ Manuel. We missed on Derek Carr and Teddy Bridgewater because in 2014 our Front Office was still trying to rescue EJ Manuel.

Shaw you and I have been around the block for years on this. You seem to think that you can coach your way around this league and I've never believed you, or thought you were right about this. Before the season you had this to say about my review of the roster: "You call his generous. Yours is miserly." And lo' and behold, yesterday the Bills, and the fans that ignore reality got what they deserved. Nate Peterman played like the mediocre, 5th round prospect that he is. McDermott coached like he always does - throwing dump off passes and trying to run 900 year old LeSean McCoy. Kicking Field Goals when your down by 40 points. From 2005-2017 this team had little to no drafting success. And yesterday was another jolting reminder that this current regime traded the few draft hits this team did have, leaving it dead in the water. We're band-aiding with Trent Murphy, Star L, Phillip Gaines, Matt Milano, Vlad Duccasse, while trying to ride the last of the Whaley guys - Clay, McCoy, Hughes..... Our Coach thinks you can line up and run on first, run on second (all of Shotgun), dump off on 3rd down and win in this league. He's said it, he's coached it. Punt on 4th-1. That's McDermott. No amount of elite culture or hard work or tape watching or scheming is going to fix that.  Here is the reality, McDermott = Jauron = Marrone. Ultra conservative coach sees a punt as improving field position.

Tyler Thigpen was pretty bad, Billy Joe Hobert, Brian Brohm. But Nate Peterman has been a turnover machine, 2.1 games played, 8 interceptions.

Trent Edwards is better than Nate Peterman

No it won’t. We we have no pass rush and our offense is designed dump offs for 4 quarters.

Doug Whaley watched college tape and concluded that EJ Manuel was worth a first rounder, whereas Dashaun Watson and Patrick Mahomes were not worth a first round pick. And our new GM traded Glenn, #12, #53, #56 for a project from the Mountain West You can’t make this stuff up. The common denominator? Both GMs talked about arm strength, size, and “presence” while saying nothing about how the quarterback accurately threw a football.

Rememb Remember transplant, the biggest jump is from Year 1 to Year 2.

1/2 game against LA - 5 Ints 1 game against Colts - 0 Ints 1 series against Jags - 1 Int 1/2 game against Ravens - 2 Ints 2.1 games = 8 interceptions I never want to see Nate Peterman play again.

The guy is right. Some fans want true excellence. And some fans are happy with hope and fairy tales.

I loved Sullivan, read his work, listened to him on the radio. He did hold the Bills accountable for their ridiculous decisions. For the “he’s too negative” crowd, this is the franchise that: -Fired Bill Polian -Ralph made Wade bench Flutie -Let Pat Williams go -Hired Donahoe -Cancelled Ralph’s halftime speech because he’d get booed -Hired 81 year old Marc Levy to be GM -Extended Dick Jauron after 4-0 start in 2008 and refused to acknowledge it -Let Tom Modrak live in Florida while being Pro Personnel director -Kept Littmann and Overdorf is place for 20+ years -Made Russ Brandon GM -Traded Peters because $10MM/year was too much for a HOF LT -Hired 70 year old Buddy Nix after “scanning a list of names” -Drafted Aaron Maybin -Spent 6 years with Trent and Fitzpatrick as starters -Had Doug Whaley conduct that ridiculous Press Conference in which he claimed he had no idea that Rex was fired -Flip flopped from a 4-3, to a 3-4, back to a 4-3 in consecutive seasons -Traded Marshawn for squat -Thought Chris Kelsay and Ryan Denney could be OLBs -Had Overdorf cutting Troy Vincent without telling Coach -Couldn’t tell Rex that he was fired, let him twist in the wind for weeks -Allowed Saint Doug to get a $4MM buyout -Sold home games to Toronto for money (good old boys club between Ralph & Rogers -Had Anthony Lynn take the heat for benching Tyrod -Employed Scott Bettchold to police Sullivan and Fairborn -Cut Fred Jackson -Drafted Spiller 9th overall and gave him 78 carries as a rookie -Drafted McGahee when they had a 1,400 yard rusher on the roster Want me to keep going?

Yeah, put me in the talent > teamwork crowd. Dick Jauron teams worked really hard, watched tape, corrected mistakes and loved each other too.

That benching had Whaley written all over it. Just so he could get one last look at his project QB EJ Manuel. Get one last look at all the progress he made in his 4 years. Sammy Watkins with a standard no impact Sammy day, 4 catches for 31 yards.

Bills decided that paying Derrick Dockery $7MM and Langston Walker $5MM and Cash to the Cap was more important than paying Peters $10MM a year.

Is this any shock? This is the man that punted on 4th-2, from the Pittsburgh 36 yard line, in the 4th quarter, down by 2 scores so that he could "play the field position" when the team had a 3-6 record. He is ridiculously conservative and his team will never have a top flight offense with him and Hackett at the helm.

If Allen comes in and is good, then fans will back him, even with mistakes that are inevitable. If he comes in and looks like EJ Manuel, and the organization starts spinning that he needs time, and help, and coaching, and reps in OTA's like we've been told about every QB here since Kelly, then the clock starts on when he is pulled.

Well, point number one, I didn't say the "franchise is a failure", I said they have not been an overwhelmingly good franchise except for the period of 1988-1993. The Bills haven't won a Playoff game since 1995. I stand by my statement, and I said that because every year debates rage between fans who are optimistic about the Bills, or in general, think they are on the right track and those fans who are not convinced. Maybe those players were dead wood, certainly not all of them were going to get paid. As much as I thought Watkins was overrated, he was a starter. As was Dareus, Tyrod, Darby, Glenn. Ragland, I understood, that's a run-stuffing LB, nothing special. I said that McDermott and Beane can not be held accountable for draft picks they didn't make. However, they took what few hits the Bills did have in the draft and purged almost of them. Also, this is the duo that backs Vlad Ducasse as a starter and only kept 260-pound FB Mike Tolbert as the backup RB to McCoy last year. I guess what I'm saying is I agree with the projections that the Bills will be bad in 2018. I do think the roster is weak. Its not all Beane/McDermott's fault. But next year they are going to have to pour resources into the offense, with Josh Allen moving into the starting role.

Remember when Buddy Nix was talking about how the Bills weren't that far away in 2010? You say all this like the Bills will get better in the draft and take other teams free agents and get better. All other 31 teams have the same avenue for growth as well. BillsfanAZ - I think you need to see that this is a complete rebuild from the ground up. There is little offensive talent on this roster, with 2 of the 3 key cogs being Whaley holdovers. Beane cashed in #12, #53, #56, #65 for Allen and Edmunds. They'll need numerous hits next year in the draft and FA to fill all those holes on this team. Years of bad drafting and purging the roster of anything Doug Whaley means we are staring at a complete rebuild. ALLEN is the only ticket for this team to really get good anytime soon. If he's not, we're a Bottom 10 team regardless of McDermott's elite culture, draft picks and cap space.

Shaw, we've been around the block about a million times on the Bills. Its great that they made the Playoffs last season. I jumped around the room, as I assume all Bills fans did. But this has not been an overwhelmingly successful franchise outside of 1988-1993. And when you look at the real talent on this team, I can't see how they stack up against the Conferences best 6 teams to really crack the Playoffs again. Peterman threw 5 picks against the Chargers in one half, threw 0 against the Colts, came in for one series against the Jags and threw an interception. We've seen him for less than 2 games of action and he's thrown 6 picks. Again, I don't think Tyrod was a great QB, but he started for 3 straight years here. The combination of Peterman/Allen is going to be better than that immediately? I don't buy it. We can debate Benjamin. If he's a #1, than Steve Johnson was a #1 for three straight years here, and not many Bills fans have his back. Benjamin has had (1) 1,000 yard season (1,008 to be exact 4 years ago) in his career. He's had an ACL and meniscus since then. I like him, but he's a far cry from Odell, Julio, Antonio Brown, AJ Green, Mike Evans. He is the defacto #1, not a world beater. If he was a top flight #1, then he would have gone for more than a 3rd Round pick. Edmunds is 20 years old. Preston Brown was a 4 year starter. Its like you dismiss that with a flick of the hand. Like all Bills teams since 2004/2005, we have no linebacker depth at all. It's too early for a judgment on Beane, but its fair to say that this team has next to no elite talent outside of holdover McCoy and maybe White. Beane spent Glenn, #12, #53, #56, #65 on Allen, Edmunds and Neal. In end, this team is still a function of horrible drafting, really from whatever date you want to pick. 2006 - Only K.Williams left, 2007 - Nothing, 2008 - Nothing, 2009 - Nothing, 2010 - Nothing, 2011 - Nothing, 2012 - Nothing, 2013 - Nothing, 2014 - Nothing, 2015 - Nothing unless you say John Miller, 2016 - Nothing except Washington. And before I get yelled at - I know Eric Wood was 2009, or Dareus was 2011, but none of those guys mean anything anymore. So all that drafting is obviously not Beane and McDermott's fault, but those poor selections combined with the hard purge of Whaley's roster - Watkins, Glenn, Ragland, Dareus, Darby, Tyrod - have left this team band aiding with free agents and lower round picks. No?

I think this is generous. QB - Downgrade until proven otherwise. Tyrod has the lowest interception rate in the history of the league. Peterman has 6 Ints in less than 2 full games. RB - Maybe a slight improvement. McCoy is another year older and Ivory is a bit better than Tolbert? OL - Worse. We still don't know if Dawkins is really = Glenn. Ducasse is a disaster, we have two years ago Groy filled in for Wood, Miller is question mark in pass protection, and as bad as Mills has been, the Bills haven't found a replacement in 3 years. TE - Same. Similar to McCoy at RB. You have 29/30 year old holdover Clay. Even if his backups are better than O'Leary, how many catches do we really expect our backup TE to make a game? 1-2? WR - Same. Benjamin is okay, but not a true #1, what is Zay Jones at this point? Then you're down to journeyman (Kerley, Holmes) and rookies. You don't have Deonte Thompson anymore. DL - Same. Trent Murphy has been hurt nearly all of Training Camp, and has one nice NFL season before injury. Star L is a run stuffer, Kyle Williams is nearing the end of the line, and Hughes has been single digit sacks for 3 straight years. I do like the Harrison Phillips pick. Lawson is nothing more than a rotational player. But this preseason looked like this line could not generate any pressure. LB - Same, but realistically probably worse. Tremaine Edmunds is going to come in and be better than Preston Brown? Lorenzo Alexander is the same. Matt Milano is not a difference maker. CB - Same maybe, but likely a bit worse. White was excellent last season. But this year we don't have E.J. Gaines. We have 200 year old Vontae Davis and Phillip Gaines. S - Same. Hyde n' Poyer

I want to see Beane and McDermott build a modern passing offense, and that will take time. When I hear McDermott talking about running the ball in snowy Buffalo, that doesn't match with the investment they made in rocket armed Josh Allen. At some point you would think they would want to take this offense more vertical. To do that they're going to need speed on the outside, with a real Tight End. Beane paid a premium for Allen and Edmunds, and so in the short term, those two need to be good. We spent Glenn, #12, #22, #53, #56 and #65 for Allen, Edmunds and Siran Neal.

When fans say a change of scenery could help, who is an example of a bad player that suddenly got good with a new team?

Actually Whaley brought Hyde and Poyer in, not Beane.