SoTier

That's an amazingly ignorant statement. Current year draft picks aren't chopped liver, and giving up top notch young veterans who have already been signed to multi-year contracts aren't, either. The Bills gave up a cartload of picks to move into position to take a QB, and it's likely that at least 2 or 3 of those picks will turn out to be good or maybe even great pro players which the Bills won't have going forward for 3-5 years and maybe more. How is that NOT "mortgaging the future"? The only way that the Glenn trade won't set the Bills back several years is if Glenn is finished, Dawkins continues to progress, and Allen is a stud. If Glenn is finished and Allen is a flop, it's a wash. If Dawkins doesn't improve from his rookie performance -- and not infrequently good rookies don't develop into better players -- then the Bills have a gaping hole at LT and still have a below average RT (the position that Dawkins was drafted to fill) which will impact both their passing and running games going forward -- and Allen's prospects for success. Well said. Bills fans buy into the myth that Glenn was "washed up" because of injury because they want to believe that the Bills FO is doing a good job. However, the reality is that Glenn's injury issues only began about mid-2016, and that he basically had one injury that lingered, probably because Glenn/the Bills took a conservative approach to it rather than immediately opting for surgery. In hindsight, that was a mistake but nobody knew that in 2016 or 2017. It's a little early to declare the 2017 trade a "steal" for anybody. It will be all KC if Mahomes is a stud and Allen is not, even if Allen becomes a decent NFL starter on a level with Dalton or Flacco. It will be a wash or slightly favoring KC if Mahomes and Allen are about the same. Yes, the Bills got White, but Milano isn't anything special and Edmunds is unproven. More importantly, the Bills gave up a whole lot more to get Allen than the Chiefs gave up to get Mahomes. Only Mahomes being a bust while Allen becomes a decent NFL will give the Bills the advantage in this trade. It will be a steal for the Bills only if Allen becomes a near elite NFL QB while Mahomes does not.

Don't confuse fanboys with facts.

A JAG and a never-were are certainly good replacements for a two time All Pro and six time Pro Bowl RB because they're available to play and "buy into the process".

^^^ Right-o ... except that the Bills had no problem trading for a WR (Benjamin) who had a history of knee trouble while in Carolina and who had an injury when they traded for him. Glenn's injury was the only significant injury of his career. Unfortunately, it happened to be one that was serious and that took a long time to heal. It may have not been dealt with the best way at the beginning -- I believe they put off surgery for quite a while hoping it would heal on its own -- which may have added to the recovery time. Certainly the injury -- and Glenn's hefty salary -- didn't prevent Cinci from jumping at the chance to improve their OL. Of course, even Marvin Lewis has figured out that his QB can't hit his blue chip WR if he's getting knocked on his arse on most passing plays. Of course, the Bills drafted a QB who has had at least one significant shoulder injury, which could be terminal for any QB's NFL career if it affects his ability to throw the football. Who's to say that that another shoulder doesn't come back to shorten Allen's career? The injuries that have prematurely ended NFL QBs' careers aren't just limited to concussions or should injuries though -- and they can happen at any time whether that QB has a history of similar injuries or not. It takes only one. Well, "3-5 very good NFL seasons" trumps a single mediocre one. Matt Schaub, who was drafted in the third round of the 2004 draft, had about that many good seasons as the starter in Houston while JP Losman whom the Bills traded up to get (giving up their 2005 first rounder BTW) had only 1 decent season, 2006. I'm not saying that Allen will bust, but he's a big gamble, and Beane's/McDermott's squandering of their 2018 draft capital to get him and Edmunds makes it even less likely that he'll succeed. Plain and simple, he doesn't have the talent around him to succeed because outside of McCoy, Clay, Dawkins, and Benjamin -- when he's healthy -- the Bills are utterly lacking in talent on the offensive side of the ball. The offense is little more than a collection of JAGs, busts, and never-weres, and frankly, the Bills don't seem all that interested in improving that. As for the OP, I find the claims of the OP's "source" having "inside information" silly. His "points" seem like the pontifications of an ignorant blow-hard sitting at a bar with his fifth or sixth Genny Cream, and are literally a rehash of all the reasons that anonymous posters on this MB offered over and over again as to why the Bills shouldn't take Rosen. His "explanation" for why the Bills traded Taylor, however, is more original but hardly plausible. Taylor has proven to be pretty durable over his three years in Buffalo despite the doomsters' warnings, particularly before 2017 when he played behind a better OL.

It will virtually guarantee the Bills the #1 pick in the 2019 draft. Without Shady, they had absolutely no offense.

Yes, eventually Brady and Belichick will age out and NE will give up its dominance, but that's irrelevant to whether or not the Bills do better in the next two decades than they did in the previous two. NE's dominance wasn't the reason for the Bills' mediocrity in the past any more than its decline will be the reason for the Bills play in the future. 9-7 and a wild card loss hardly portend the beginning of a dynasty.

The worst game I ever attended was the 2008 game against the 49ers where the Bills lost 12-9 when Lindell's reasonable FG attempt went thunk! against the upright and bounced harmlessly away. That was late in third or fairly early in the fourth IIRC, and Losman had replaced Edwards and proceeded to give a perfect imitation of Tentative Trent. It was a cold, wet day with just enough drizzle to make the whole experience just miserable. My friend and I just chucked it in after that missed FG -- the first and only time I walked out of a Bills game with significant time to play simply because it was plain that the Bills wouldn't be scoring any more points in that game. I had been disillusioned with Jauron prior to that game, but I came to loathe him after that one. I missed that one because I chose to attend the big arts and crafts fair at Letchworth that weekend. Didn't the QBs -- the great Trent Edwards and Derek Anderson IIRC -- together fail to throw for 100 yards combined or something horrendous like that ?

The Eagles had/have talent on both sides of the ball including a solid WR corps and one of the best, if not the best, OLs in the league plus they had a starting QB with a solid year's experience and an innovative, offensive minded coaching staff. How do the Bills compare to that? Very poorly. They are one of the least talented teams in the NFL. They do not have an NFL caliber OL or WR corps. Their QBs have fewer than 10 NFL starts among the three of them, and their "blue chip" rookie's claim to fame is simply his arm strength. More importantly, not only does the Bills HC coach bear a depressing similarity to Dick Jauron in his coaching philosophy -- playing not to lose -- but he and the GM apparently believe attitude and hard work and buying into the coach's "process" trumps talent. Only in an alternative universe where fantasy becomes reality can the Bills win the division ... or even come close to winning half their games. In, this team will come closer to getting the #1 draft pick than making the playoffs.

Actually, what he lacked was a team that was interested in utilizing that new-fangled thing called the forward pass, which really hasn't been the Bills since they sent Drew Bledsoe packing in 2005. Notice that both Woods and Watkins flourished on their new teams, too. I don't think that's coincidence, and it's not just on the QB.

Who is advocating that Beane and/or McDermott be canned? The OP started a thread based on simplistic homerism advocating that Beane be forgiven for his mistakes no matter how serious, and posters have responded negatively to that naive premise. While you may be willing to unconditionally support Beane and McDermott just because they lucked out and made the playoffs, not all fans are willing to do that. I am one of those. I'm skeptical of the current regime because I see too many parallels to previous regimes, which suggests that the current team isn't likely to be any more successful than previous Bills teams.

Except it's not just McDermott's style of coaching -- playing not to lose -- that I find too much like Jauron ... I listed what I thought were similarities to Jauron in my post including McDermott's intolerance for players who don't fall into line with his ideas; his disregard for the offense, most especially the importance of the OL; and finally, McDermott's apparent belief that modestly talent players who buy into his "process" will triumph over more talented players who think for themselves. I don't think the "character culture" is overblown. I think what McDermott and Beane mean by "character" isn't what most fans consider "character". I think McDermott and Beane define "character" as players being willing to support "the company line" without question. Why did the Bills have to take a QB in 2018 if they only had the choice of a supposedly "concussion prone" QB (your claim) or a QB that most draft pundits considered highly likely to bust? Why should Beane "deserve credit" for doing the same self-serving thing that Doug Whaley did in 2013, putting economic considerations (ticket sales) ahead of winning?

How do we know this? Because the Bills got lucky last year and made the playoffs? They've been 9-7 numerous times before. They failed to be competive against the Patriots, losing the first game 23-3 and the second one 37-16. In case you don't remember, that's 1 TD in 8 quarters. They also got stomped by the offensive powerhouse Saints and the defensive powerhouse Chargers. They caught Atlanta napping early in the season and Indy shocked by a damned blizzard late. They smacked QB-less Miami twice. Then they got an absolute gift from the Bengals in the closing seconds of the final game. I'll be impressed when I see fewer games that remind me of 2006-2009.

Well, then, let's extend McDermott and his side-kick Beane right now despite what they may do in the future just because they got the Bills into the playoffs last season ... just like the Bills extended Dick Jauron after the 2008 season because the Bills started that season 5-2 ... McDermott seems to be Dick Jauron's twin brother from a another mother, and the more I see of him, the more I'm convinced of this. McDermott shares a similar "play not to lose" coaching style which leads to lots of boring games, lots of "shoulda, coulda, woulda" game results, and lots of scapegoating of players whom poor coaching/personnel decisions put into untenable situations during games. McDermott, like Dick Jauron, seems to define "team player" as blind support for whatever he says/does. "My way or the highway" was the Bills "culture" in 2006-2009 under Jauron, and that seems to be what the Bills "culture" has become since McDermott has taken over. Both Jauron and McDermott seemed to believe that that adhering to the HC's version of "political correctness" should triumph over talent every time. Moreover, like Jauron, McDermott seems to view the offense as a necessary evil, and the OL as an unimportant decoration instead of the foundation for offensive success that successful NFL HCs know it is. My guess is that the 2018 Bills are going to be one of the worst offensive scoring teams in the NFL if not the worst. Given that the Bills have Hauschka, they likely won't get shut out frequently but I expect they'll double 2017's 2 no TD games. They are crap on offense except for RB and TE, but feel free to put the blame for the offensive woes on McDermott's OCs. Fans did that Jauron's OCs, too.

I disagree with this completely. You are claiming that even if the current Bills regime fails to produce, they're still "the right guys". Why is that? If you're a manager of a business who made questionable deals to supposedly amass "capital" that you then squandered by spending lavishly on a couple of very risky projects that had limited chances of success, especially after you had stripped your business of so many assets, why should you be given more opportunities to screw up? Shouldn't "the right guy" prove he's "the right guy" with positive results when he spent so much and got so little to show for his "capital"? Claiming that "The Bills' roster is pretty set all around with a few areas that could use upgrades here and there" is an ignorant statement. The Bills offense is a joke. Their QBs have fewer than 10 NFL starts among the three of them, and neither McCarron nor Peterman have demonstrated that they have the potential to be low-quality NFL starters. The Bills have 1 legitimate NFL WR, Benjamin, and he has had a history of bad knees. Zay Jones is a bust unless and until he proves otherwise. The retirements of Wood and Incognito and the trading of Glenn has left the Bills OL made up of journeymen and career backups with only 1 legit NFL starting quality player, sophomore OT Dion Dawkins. With the draft capital that the Bills had, they could have filled some of those offensive holes if they had stayed at #12 and taken whichever QB was left. Allen was not such a good prospect that he merited the Bills moving up from #12. If Rosen was available and they didn't want him, then the Bills could have passed. They didn't have to take a first round QB if they didn't like him unless, of course, like in 2013 when the Bills took Manuel in the first round, taking a QB in the first round was primarily a move to increase ticket sales. If that was the case, then how are "the right guys" any different from "the wrong guys" of previous regimes, OP? In fact, how is the Pegulas' ownership any different from Ralph Wilson's ownership? If Allen fails, which several of Beane's other personnel decisions both before and during the draft may have very well made more likely to happen, then Beane deserves the boot because he's hardly better Whaley or Donahoe. Even the best QBs need protection and targets. As of right now, whoever plays QB for the Bills in 2018 -- and possibly going forward into 2019 and 2020 -- isn't going to have much of either one, and the fault for that lies with the GM, Brandon Beane.

Since McDermott's coaching philosophy is hauntingly reminescent of Dick Jauron, I think #20 is generous, reflecting that McDermott is at least 10 times (maybe 100 times) the game coach that Jauron was. My guess is that McDermott's "play not to lose" philosophy won't fly long term in the NFL, especially with the lack of talent on the offense.

How did Jenkins "mess up"? He has been in Florida for weeks. Lots of people have relatives/friends/house sitters stay at their houses when they're away for extended periods to discourage property crimes.

Since the police could very well not let you into your house if it was a murder scene, it might be pointless until they release the house from the investigation. If his brother is involved, then that would be a reason for Jenkins to return immediately but it wouldn't necessarily make him look involved in the crime. Families tend to come together in times of trouble.

I agree. Gabriel's evals of both Allen and Edmunds are about like the evals that other draft analysts put out around draft time. Both are big risks, even without the fact that the Bills traded up to get both.

Just because the Bills frequently trade away their best players for next to nothing, especially when those players are among the best in the NFL, doesn't mean that other teams are as disinterested in winning football games. For those suffering from memory impairment, Jason Peters and Marshawn Lynch are two ex-Bills who were about the same caliber as Jones when the Bills traded them away for the equivalent of used athletic equipment. Even if Jones were to be available for trade, the Bills wouldn't be interested. The current regime doesn't seem interested in adding top players, especially on offense.

Actually, Blake Bortles played pretty well most of the year, so your statement is dead wrong. Moreover, why do you think that the Bills will be able to run the ball? They weren't nearly as good running the ball last season as they were the season before, and they've lost their 3 top OLers. They've added only 1 veteran lineman, and the prospects of finding decent OLers off the waiver wire are between slim and none. There's also no guarantee that the QBing will be an improvement over last year, either. FTR, the Bills didn't have a "great" defense last season.

Yeah. Only morons or Pats fans would question the ability of a team lacking an NFL caliber OL, WR and QB corps to win more than a few games in the same season.

The last time I looked, the media doesn't determine whether any athlete succeeds or fails. Allen will succeed or fail based on how he does on the field, not on what the media says about his play.

I think that the arguments over "production" for Allen -- or any QB -- will occur if he fails to clearly take command of the team and take it to wins using his arm and leadership so that the team wins regularly and makes the playoffs consistently. Who's the best QB among Andy Dalton, Ryan Tannehill, and Cam Newton? I think most posters would pick Newton even if his stats aren't nearly as good as Dalton's or Tannehill's for most of his career. Controversies over a QB's stats occurs when there's general dissatisfaction with how the team performs, even when that performance may not be the QB's fault (like the Bills likely having a suspect OL and WR corps in 2018 or a crappy defense like they had in 2016). How many Packer fans complained about Favre's propensity to throw INTs?

Y'know, the last time I heard a Bills team described this way was when Jauron had those god-awful boring 7-9 losing groups, and the 2018 Bills resemble those talent-deprived squads far too much for my liking. Sorry, but motivation, youth, and work ethic are not substitutes for talent, and good coaching can only go so far in making up the talent deficit. Perennial playoff/Super Bowl contenders aren't that way because they're filled with hard working players with modest talent; they're filled with lots of very talented players on both sides of the ball. Brandon Beane has proven squat. He's run exactly 1 draft, and none of those players have played in an NFL game that counts yet. His trades yielded mostly draft picks. HIs FA acquisitions have yet to play for the Bills in NFL games that count just like his draft picks.

I hope you are wrong, but certainly giving Wood and McCoy incentives for 2017 would have likely been a very seamless way to get them to buy into McDermott's "process" without appearing to do so. I, too, am suspicious that the return to Jauron Ball in 2017 might become the Bills new "norm". Why do you think that NFL execs/management are exempt from practicing the same kind of ruthless manipulation that we see all the time in other businesses -- and in government, organizations, and even families? Have you never known of somebody high up a corporate food chain who used financial incentives or a strategic promotion or transfer to accomplish some goal without appearing to do so? I'm not saying that this was the case with the Bills deals with Wood and McCoy, but it's not outside the realm of possibility, particularly with Russ Brandon at the head of the organization.