SoTier

You are missing the point that Rc2catch and I are advocating that the Bills shouldn't get rid of Kroft just to clear cap space and/or current salary without having somebody better already signed. Teams have to be at/under the cap when the season starts, not during preseason. The Bills have plenty of cap space and don't seem to be likely to pursue many high priced FAs. I think that they may give out 1 expensive contract to 1 key player with the rest of their signings being much more modest just as in 2019. Targeting a particular FA doesn't mean that a team lands that player. Just because a rookie played well in his first season doesn't mean that he will continue to improve. Many good looking rookies disappear after their initial season. Moreover, if the Bills really "believe in Knox", then why pursue another, much more expensive, TE in FA? It might be wiser for the Bills to go with Knox and Kroft and look to upgrade other positions where they have a real need like WR and RB.

Kroft was plagued by injury most of the season IIRC, a "high ankle sprain" I think, which seems to be an injury that takes a while to recover from. He only played in 11 games, starting 3. If he can stay healthy and contribute like so many TEs are doing these days, $6 million would be cheap, so I think that the Bills should give him at through TC to prove he can earn his pay, even if they were to sign somebody like Hooper. Why are you -- and others -- so worried about Terry Pegula's wallet that you want to cut players when they don't need to be cut just to save relatively few dollars? There's not some unwritten law somewhere that says that the Bills are only allowed to have 1 good starting-caliber WR or TE or RB, but that seems to be what many Bills fans assume. You cannot build a perennial playoff team with real Super Bowl aspirations by surrounding a few quality players with bottom feeder talent, and good/decent talent costs more than poor talent. I'm sure the DeBartolo/York or Hunt families aren't quibbling about their profit margins right now.

The bad news is that first round WRs fail almost as badly as first round QBs. The good news is that 2nd or 3rd round WRs seem to have much better chances of becoming quality starters than do 2nd or 3rd round QBs. I can't see a superstar type WR who is ready to step in and make a significant contribution early on falling to the Bills at #22, so the Bills going BPA on Day 1 works for me. If they do their homework, they should be able to get a quality starter -- possibly even better than that -- at #22, especially if they are open to positions that traditionally produce good/great players at the bottom of the first round like interior OLers, TEs, LBs or DBs rather than insisting on taking a WR who's not really a first rounder to begin with. It would be great if BPA and need coincided, which it sometimes does, but passing on better prospects to take a lesser one just because of need, especially in the first round, is a recipe for long term mediocrity as the list of Bills classic blunders based on drafting for need have demonstrated over the years demonstrate: Erik Flowers in 2000, Donte Whitner in 2006, Aaron Maybin in 2009, and EJ Manuel in 2013.

Cutting Kroft only makes sense IF you can actually sign Hooper plus a quality veteran WR. Otherwise, Kroft can remain useful in multiple TE passing sets that are becoming popular. Allen needs some bigger targets, and if healthy, Kroft can be one.

If the Chiefs win the Super Bowl, McCoy at $4 million and Watkins at $16 million will be considered good investments by the Chiefs and their fans. PS: I 'm rooting for Duvernay-Tardif, too. A special dude -- earned his medical degree while playing pro football!

No, "these things" don't happen to "every franchise". Teams don't pass on great QB prospects to draft a DB when they are in desperate need of a QB. They happen to teams because the ownership and top management are either inept or not particularly interested in winning football games. It's time for Bills fans to just own it: Terry Pegula screwed the pooch by keeping Russ Brandon on when he purchased the team in 2013. The Bills had a .383 winning percentage and never won more than 7 games in the 8 years that Brandon ran the team through 2013 when Pegula purchased the team. When the Bills cleaned house of the old guard, Brandon stayed. After the Ryan fiasco, Pegula just let Brandon do whatever he wanted and even promoted him to run the Sabres, which has worked out really well, too. In 2017, the Bills did what they'd always done under Wilson and Brandon: let the good young players walk away in FA -- some reputedly without ever getting an offer from the Bills -- and used the draft to fill the holes they'd created. I don't know why Whaley was marginalized before the 2017, but putting McDermott in charge of the 2017 draft and instructing him/authorizing him to make the trade was a major blunder that will haunt the Bills for as long as Mahomes continues to dominate the NFL, and it's on Pegula. McDermott was a neophyte HC. He was a lamb ready to be fleeced by that experienced KC FO (and Andy Reid in particular who seems to have made the Bills his special target over the years) that know what the hell they're doing. It's time to move on from this, but it will continue to resurface with regularity unless Josh Allen can rise to the level of elite NFL QB. Alex Smith is a good NFL QB but the Niners' passing on Aaron Rodgers to take #1 over in 2005 still comes up whenever the Niners play the Packers. Nobody laments that the Bills took Jim Kelly over Dan Marino because of Kelly's success.

Maybe you didn't notice how many teams had difficulty finding kickers who could reliably make 35 yard FGs this season? Yes, Hauschka needs to be replaced -- but not until the Bills actually have a better kicker on the roster.

Exactly right. The Bills are in a different place than they've been in at least 25 years: they have a good team with a stable coaching staff, a playoff team filled with promising young players that fit the coaching staff's requirements, and they have plenty of cap space. They are likely to lose at least some of the current roster to retirement/FA so they are going to have to fill those holes as well as upgrade several other positions. Cap space doesn't win football games, players do -- and teams need to have guys on the roster who are rotational and role players and STers. Creating holes just to save current $$$ or cap space is what the Bills did for nearly twenty years. It's time for the Bills to start emulating other successful teams that keep as much of their current roster as they can until they actually have better options on the roster.

I disagree. It's a simplistic take that supports prejudices but there's no evidence to support it in this article. First, this study didn't investigate why people moved. Secondly, the states bordering New York -- Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey -- are hardly tax havens themselves. The biggest reason people relocate from one area to another whether in or out of state is employment/business/career opportunity. it's why most Americans have always moved, starting with when they or their ancestors packed up and left the Old World. I lived in the Albany area (30 miles from both Vermont and Massachusetts) for more than a decade and I've lived in Chautauqua County (Jamestown is 10 miles from PA) for 20+ years, and haven't met anybody who actually moved to any of those states that because of taxes. Lots of people talked about doing that but none of them actually carried through with it. Most of the people I know who moved from New York to Vermont, Massachusetts or Pennsylvania moved because they got jobs in those states that weren't within easy commuting distance from their NY homes, just like people from Jamestown moving to Buffalo or Rochester for jobs or people from New York City moving to Albany because of jobs. The second biggest reason people relocate is quality of life issues, which are frequently housing affordability, schools, weather etc. It's why Americans from northern states have moved south and west for decades. That's especially true of people in the NYC metro, which accounts for more than half of New York State's population. Housing affordability is significantly better in New Jersey and Pennsylvania than in NYC or its New York suburbs like Westchester or Long Island, and the commutes are shorter from NJ and PA than from NY areas like Orange County or the mid Hudson Valley where housing affordability becomes comparable. Public schools in suburban New Jersey or in Pennsylvania, like public schools in suburban New York tend to be generally better than public schools in NYC or its boroughs. Not having to shell out for pricey private school tuition is a significant motivator for families with children to move to suburban areas. I think that even among retirees who relocate, taxes are not a primary motivator. I think quality of life considerations -- frequently weather, life style or proximity to family -- count for considerably more.

Seriously??? Jones cost the Bills a second round pick plus the other pick(s) they used to move up to draft him in 2017, so crowing about getting a Day 3 pick in the 2021 draft for him is like bragging about winning $100 in the lottery ... while ignoring that you spent $2000 buying tickets.

I totally agree. The Bills are in desperate need of probably 2 big, sure-handed WR1 types. I would like to see the Bills sign/trade for a veteran and draft one in the first or second round. I don't think that the Bills can afford to waste another year of Allen's rookie contract with only Beasley and Brown as reliable WRs while hoping that a rookie WR can develop quickly -- if at all.

You are being much too kind. It's a tie of borderline NFL caliber WRs, neither one of whom is good enough to be the third or fourth WR on a team with serious playoff prospects. Not having better WRs than Jones or Williams to use with Beasley and Brown is a significant reason for the Bills being one and done in the playoffs this year.

Nobody is disputing that by the time of the draft that McDermott was in charge. He likely hadn't even been hired yet when the Bills decided that they weren't paying Gilmore. Hell, the Bills probably decided that they weren't re-signing Gilmore during the 2016 season because that's when the claims that Gilmore "didn't want to be here" started percolating (always a sign that Wilson/Brandon were prepping to dump a quality player for used athletic equipment or less), probably as a result of Gilmore's agent laughing at whatever the Bills initial under-market offer was. The two best FA acquisitions since 2017 were Hyde and Poyer. It's likely that they were Whaley's signees because they were the kind of players that he sniffed out ... unheralded younger vets who could blossom in the Bills defensive scheme. Jerry Hughes was a similar acquisition. None of the veterans that the Bills have acquired since through trade or free agency have been even close to the same quality as Hyde and Poyer. Some time between the signing of Hyde and Poyer, who were done early in FA, and the draft, Whaley was pushed out. My guess is that it was because of the draft, not because of any conflict over FAs. I think that Whaley wanted either Watson or Mahomes while McDermott wanted a first round DB to replace Gilmore. That McDermott was the one who made the deal with Dorsey -- according to Dorsey -- only says that McDermott was in charge of the draft, not that he took over control of player acquisition from the beginning of his tenure.

If the Bills don't think a first team All Pro CB is "worth paying top money" when they don't have any other player making top tier money at their position except for maybe Morse, they have plenty of cap space, and they have serious needs to fill at other positions, then the ghosts of Ralph Wilson and Russ Brandon are alive and well at OBD. This. The Bills need to use FA and the first two days of the draft to add two big, sure-handed receivers, a better RB than Gore or Yeldon, and an edge rusher as well as maybe an OLer if they can find one. They also need to generally upgrade their non-starter talent so that their STs can become assets rather than liabilities. They don't need to make CB1 another Day 1 or 2 need which they've done repeatedly in the past. This has been exactly why the Bills went 17 years without a playoff appearance. They were always spinning their wheels because they were always creating holes by letting their best players walk away ... and that was most noticeable when it came to DBs. ^^^ I don't think that McDermott can be responsible for the decision to not re-sign Gilmore; he may have agreed with it but the timeline doesn't fit for him to have made the actual decision. It was generally speculated in the media that Gilmore wouldn't be back in 2017 before the 2016 season ended, well before McDermott was hired. McDermott was hired in January, 2017, so he would have been on the job only a few weeks before FA started, and wouldn't have had time to supplant Whaley before the decision to let Gilmore walk was made. The FA signing period generally starts in early March IIRC, but the teams decide which players to re-sign or franchise before that, and McDermott would have been too new to have acquired that much power. Moreover, not paying outstanding players, especially DBs, for the market rate was pretty much an institutional policy under Ralph Wilson and Russ Brandon ... and the GMs Donahoe, Nix, and Whaley all accepted that. I also don't think franchise tagging Gilmore was ever even considered. I can't think of any player the Bills franchise tagged since 2000 ... I've said it before that how the Bills handle White -- whether they re-sign him or let him walk -- will indicate whether McDermott and Beane are truly a new regime or if the legacy of Wilson and Brandon still rules the Bills.

I disagree with this view because it reflects the typical Bills fan fantasy that a team with a couple of stars and a bunch of bargain basement JAGs can compete with teams loaded with talent throughout their roster. The Bills as an organization has fed fans that fantasy for the almost twenty years -- and their record between 2000 and 2016 demonstrates how much of a fantasy it is. The Bills have two windows that they need to act upon: Josh Allen's rookie contract and winning a Super Bowl. Determining Allen's worth is by far the most pressing and important window. You can't build a Super Bowl contender with a poor offense lacking a franchise QB and playmakers to support him. You also can't accurately assess Allen as a QB when the only weapons he has are 2 small WRs (Beasley and Brown) and a rookie RB (Singletary). Kamara would be one, especially paired with a between the tackles runner like Singletary. AJ Green would be another one. Not only is the draft a crap shoot as to who may be available and whether that pick turns out to be a diamond or a dud, but it generally takes time for rookies to develop. The Bills can't afford to waste Allen's rookie contract because they're waiting for a rookie RB to learn to block or a rookie WR to learn to run routes, because if he's not a true franchise QB, then the Bills don't really have a window for winning a Super Bowl. The Bills need to invest in the offense, and Kamara and Green would be good investments because they would enable the Bills to more accurately assess Allen.

Exactly this. There are only 4 teams with seating capacity over 80K: Dallas, Washington, Green Bay, Met Life (Jets/Giants). KC, Carolina, Denver, and LA Rams play in stadiums with more than 75K seats. The Ravens, Saints, Bills, and Texans play in stadiums with between 70-75k. That leaves 17 teams in stadiums between 60-70k seating, 1 team (Oakland) playing in a 56,000 seat stadium, and 1 team playing in a 27k seat stadium (Chargers).

This time, though, he seems to be improving the longer he plays, which is a new scenario for Fitzy.

While I agree that Cooper is not a good FA prospect, the Bills have way too many needs, especially at WR, to pass on top on signing a quality FA WR like Green if he's available. They cannot afford to waste the remainder of Allen's rookie contract because they are too cheap to give him a big, sure-handed receiver to create mismatches with smaller DBs next season. Allen needs bigger, better targets than he has other than Beasley and Brown if the Bills are going to make a sound decision on the kind of QB he truly is. They don't have any big young WRs on the roster, and relying on the draft can be iffy, especially with WRs. They have a promising TE in Knox, but they could use an upgrade to add another pass-catching veteran TE.

Ever hear of the phrase, "be careful what you wish for"? Don't necessarily assume that Daboll is the problem with the offense or that his replacement would do as well much less better than he's done. The Bills aren't loaded with talent on the offensive side of the ball that Daboll has failed to maximize. In fact, the lack of talent on the offensive side seems likely to have limited what the Bills can do offensively. Plain and simple, they are missing key pieces of a productive offense -- at least 2 big, reliable, sure-handed receivers and significantly better RBs than Gore and Yeldon --,and they need upgrades at OT (either through improvement in young players or new ones) plus continued progress from Josh Allen. The only real playmaker the Bills have on the offensive side of the ball is Allen, and he's not good enough at this point to carry the offense without more talent around him than he's got at present. I don't necessarily think that Daboll is a great OC but I think that given what he's had to work with, he's done an adequate job, so I'd give him another season to see what he can do with more talent on offense -- assuming that the Bills acquire that additional talent.

I was replying to the criticism that some posters make that when the Bills get ahead, they get too conservative. Maybe it's a tug of war between McDermott and Daboll, one wanting to not take chances once the team has a lead, and the other realizing that that lead can as easily be lost by 1 defensive mistake as by 1 offensive mistake. Maybe Daboll recognizes that the Bills don't have a good enough trio of RBs to be a run first team like Seattle or Pittsburgh. I think that the lack of offensive talent -- the starting skilled players are mostly decent or better but the second and third guys are well below average --- really limits what kind of offensive plays the Bills can run successfully. I would like to see them run more and throw more to the backs out of the backfield, but you literally need a stable of speedy RBs to do that. Hopefully upgrading the RB unit is a priority for next season.

You obviously missed the point that they've lost all three of their RBs recently: Penny went on IR a few weeks ago. Procise has been injured. Carson had been dealing with injuries and apparently suffered a serious hip injury against Arizona. I think I heard it was a broken hip.

Totally agree. They're still in the playoff hunt in Week 17 with Mason Rudolph and Duck Hodges as their QBs because they have a great OL, good RBs, and a great D. This has been their formula for half a century. Those great Steelers teams of the 70s with Bradshaw were anchored by the Steel Curtain and the running of Franco Harris. I think there's likely to be a decent crop of veteran QBs available in FA. Somebody like Case Keenum or Ryan Tannehill probably could get this team to the playoffs next season. BTW, the Steelers have been without a top tier QB before, and had good success. In Bill Cowher's 15 years as Pittsburgh HC, he had Roethlisberger for only 3 seasons (and won a SB with him), but his teams won 7 division championsships in those 12 seasons with QBs named O'Donnell, Stewart, Tomczak, and Maddox. They also made the AFC Conference Championship 4 times and the Super Bowl once. They'll make due until they find another QB of the caliber of Bradshaw and Roethlisberger.

I think that the philosophy McDermott is using is sound when a team has a young somewhat erratic QB -- get ahead, run the ball, depend on a stout D, and don't let a stupid mistake kill you -- but I don't think that the Bills have a good enough OL and RBs to execute it.

I think you are not being realistic. The Bills did not have a NFL caliber offense in 2018. I do not believe that they had NFL caliber coaching on the offensive side, either. What the Bills have to work with on offense is very limited weapons and only 1 true playmaker: Josh Allen. I think that McDermott and Daboll are working with what they have, and the name of the game is wins. Their formula is trying to get the most out of what they have while trying hard not to expose their weaknesses. No amount of coaching is going to make players taller or faster. Simply put, the Bills need more and better talent on offense before they can even begin to implement a more explosive offense.

You know what's really not a fun to watch??? Watching your team lose 9,10 or 11 games season after season for almost 20 years. I'm not a big Beane/McDermott fan, and I remain skeptical about the team's commitment to building a team truly good enough to compete seriously for the Super Bowl, but that's an issue for the off season It doesn't diminish how great it feels as a fan to FINALLY have a Bills team that's not only competitive in every game, but also wins most of the time ... or a team that again has "nothing to play for" in week 17, but finally for the right reason: a clinched playoff berth. How can you NOT find a December game in Foxborough with playoff seedings on the line for both teams entertaining, especially when the Bills not only played the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots close but also had a real chance to tie the game in the closing seconds???