SoTier

Pretty much. Once a team pays their QB, they can maybe sign 1 other first tier (and expensive) offensive player and 1 first tier (expensive) defensive player. Then they have to make-do with good to decent older veteran players and youngsters on their rookie contracts. If the QB can't make the guys around him better, the team is in deep doodoo. Mike Brown aside, there's really no way that the Bengals can afford both Chase and Higgins after paying Burrow.

My point was that despite being crippled by late season injuries to key players, the Bills defense managed to keep the game close while the offense, which was far healthier, had opportunities they missed. I don't really "blame" offense or defense for the KC loss; they rolled snake eyes again against the Chiefs as in 2021.

It's not a question of "having a really wealthy owner". Every NFL owner is "really wealthy". It's a question of the owner's commitment to winning football games over making larger profits. Mike Brown, like Ralph Wilson, has never been truly committed to winning when winning negatively impacts the team's balance sheet.

It took Chicago four years to decide that they didn't want Trubisky. When they didn't pick up Trubisky's fifth year option, he became a free agent at the end of his fourth season. Trubisky had "no value" because no team was going to give up anything for a guy they could get for nothing. It happens all the time. The Jests decided they didn't want Wilson after his third season, and the Broncos get him for half-price for a season to see if he's worth anything at all.

Apples to turnips, dude. A first round QB on his rookie contract always has more "trade value" than any veteran backup QB because a veteran backup is what he is, and there's no GM who thinks he might develop into something better in the right situation. There are always people, even in NFL FOs, who believe that maybe that first round bust was "mishandled" or "needs a change of scenery" or who decide to just take a flyer because the price is so low compared to what he cost his original team in draft capital. Wilson in particular has value to Denver because with the Jests picking up half his salary, he's cheaper than any veteran backup QB they could sign off the street, and given the Broncos' current QB and cap situation, they might get a QB better than anybody else on their roster at a price they can afford.

I'm not sure what criteria you use to determine whether a team is a Super Bowl contender, but whatever it is, I doubt that it's based on anything except emotion. The Bills won the AFCE with a 5 game win streak at the end of the season that included wins over the Chiefs, the Cowboys and the Dolphins. In fact, the Bills swept their main AFCE rival, the Fins. They earned the #2 seed in the AFC. They manhandled the Stillers in the wild card round. FTR, the Bills whom you claim were "NOT EVEN CLOSE to being anywhere near a Super Bowl contender" was the only AFC team to play the Chiefs tough down to the closing minutes in the playoffs -- and that with the defense being decimated with injuries so badly that they only started 4 LBs against KC and were missing key DBs as well.

Sooooo?

Gabe Davis was a fourth round draft pick so he was taken on Day 3. He probably outplayed his draft position somewhat, and he was probably a bargain at $4-5 million (which is JAG money for a WR) but he surely wasn't worth the $13+ million a year that he got from Jacksonville; he simply isn't fast enough or consistent enough. The Bills already have a couple of guys on their roster capable of replacing a significant amount of Davis' production: Khalil Shakir and Curtis Samuel. The Bills do need to add two outside WRs (WR1 and WR2) before opening day. Most likely, the WR1 will come from round 1 or 2 of the draft. The Bills may take another WR on Day 3 or they may sign a veteran after June 1. They might do both. The Bills have the second best QB in the NFL playing behind a solid OL with a dynamic young starting RB who is a threat in both the running and passing games. Shakir and Samuel are both competent WRs. They have a pair of young TEs who give them the ability to use 2 TE sets to effectively run or pass the ball. The sky is not falling on the Bills offense.

My guess is that Wilson went #2 because Woody Johnson wanted him. I have nothing to prove anything but in the twenty plus years that Johnson has owned the Jests, the team has invested 4 first round picks in QBs: 2000 - #18 Chad Pennington, 2009 - #5 Mark Sanchez, 2018 - #3 Sam Darnold, and 2021 - #2 Zach Wilson. Only Pennington came close to being a franchise QB, and he simply couldn't stay on the field because of injuries. I believe that each of these QBs were drafted by a different GM, so it the only common denominator is Johnson.

It takes a long time for players to come back from ACLs, almost always more than a year physically and frequently longer psychologically. If the Bills didn't feel that Miller could play significantly better than he had last season, they probably would have cut him. OTOH, if Miller didn't feel that he could play significantly better, he wouldn't have taken a $10 million pay cut to prove it. He would have either retired or gotten paid by some other team. Furthermore, if the Bills had cut Miller, they would have created more holes on the team because they would have had to cut more veterans and been unable to replace them with decent players. Of course, they probably would have had to keep Diggs, which may or may not been a good thing.

The Pats missed the playoffs in 2008 because Brady tore up his knee in the season opener. They went 11-5 but Miami beat them out with Chad Pennington taking them to a 11-5 record, too. If the Bills lost Allen in the first game of the season, they probably will miss the playoffs, too.

Did you watch the Bills last season -- I mean really watch them by paying attention to what was going in the game not just kibbutzing with pals, especially in the last half of the season when they made their big run? They were playing championship caliber defense with an injury depleted unit. Matt Milano and Tre White were out for the season in the fifth game of the season, and they looked doomed but they regained their momentum and played tough the rest of the way. At the very end of the season and in the playoff win against Pittsburgh, they had more injuries to the DBs and the LBs. They only started 4 LBs -- including AJ Klein who came out of retirement to play -- against the Chiefs and were missing at least one DB and had another playing limited snaps IIRC, too. It wasn't the defense that let them down against KC, it was the offense that missed a couple of plays that would have won the game. Poyer and Hyde were shadows of their previous selves last season. Injuries did in Hyde, and both had slowed down. White was showing signs of coming back but then he suffered another devastating injury and missed the last 12 games. Miller did next to nothing last season when he did come back, so if he gets back to even a shadow of himself in 2024, it will be a plus. Milano broke his leg rather than suffering a ligament injury so it's likely that he can come back strong this season. The Bills will miss Leonard Floyd on the DL but they're bringing back Ed Oliver who blossomed last season and AJ Epenesa who showed real progress. Tyrel Dodson at LB is gone but Terrel Bernard was outstanding as a 2nd year pro and should be better this year, especially paired with Milano. The 3 starting CBs from last season, Douglas, Benford, and Johnson are all coming back. Edwards and Rapp are the new safeties, which is somewhat worrisome but remember that Poyer and Hyde were largely unknowns when they were signed in 2017. The Bills defense is a work in progress but there's still the draft and post-June 1 FA signings (when they get some extra cap space). They definitely need a pass rusher and probably another safety, and their depth on defense is shaky. McDermott runs a defense that seems to enable the Bills to plug-in players fairly easily as needed. IMO, the Bills D will likely be about as good as last season. If they can avoid devastating injuries to their best players, they have a chance to be better than last season.

Harbaugh hasn't coached in the NFL in a decade, and the NFL in 2024 is very different than it was in 2014. I'm not sure that Harbaugh realizes that since he hired Greg Roman as his OC when he has Justin Herbert as his QB. Is Roman going to try to turn Herbert into a "dual threat QB" like Kaepernick or Lamar early in his career. Ben Johnson has never been a HC in the NFL. A lot of coordinators don't make particularly good HCs, and the list of coordinators who've been successful in their first head coaching gigs is rather small. McDermott is one of them. The Bills "didn't have the horses on defense to beat KC in the playoffs" in 2023 because their defense was decimated by injury late in the season. Not only were they missing Milano and White, but they also lost Douglas, Bernard, and a couple of other defenders for the playoff game with the Chiefs. They still nearly won the game.

I'd prefer the Bills to have some luck in the playoffs, especially in regard to coin flips and injuries.

That's definitely a WNY, especially Southern Tier, thing. I've heard people refer to the village of Silver Creek as Silver Crik. One thing that I've noticed recently on tv is some actors seem to add an extra syllable to some words, most notably on words that end in ing. Examples: go-ing becomes go-ing-ga or com-ing becomes com-ing-ga.

So, who would you suggest to replace McDermott? Mike McDaniel whose Fins were great at beating the crap out of bottom feeders (Broncos, Jests, Commanders, etc) but managed a single win against teams with winning records? Maybe Bill Belichick?

FO techie job gathering and analyzing data. Since I'm comfortably retired, I would do it for a pair of season tix equivalent to the current club level.

I don't think that the Bills need to have a roster full of elite offensive players who "keep DCs awake at night". If they give Allen a variety of good/excellent options in both the passing and running game, Allen will give every DC he faces nightmares. If the Bills were going to go for "elite" players, they might do better to add elite OLers than elite skill players. I'm not arguing for getting by with JAGs on offense but the reality is that a team that's paying a prime franchise QB has limited options for adding/keeping difference making players past their rookie contracts so a lot of their offensive players are going to be on a level of Kincaid and Cook. I do think that the Bills absolutely need to find a couple of elite players on the defensive side, especially on the DL. The Bills have had some bad luck with defensive injuries the last couple of seasons. Miller, White, and Milano might have qualified as elite if not for injury. Ed Oliver came into his own last season, and hopefully the Bills find a DE to take advantage of his good play inside to create more QB pressures.

I loved that book!

I have no illusions that even fifty years ago as a 20 something I could complete even 1 NFL pass, so I owned the reality and voted a goose egg.

I certainly hope not. With the quality and quantity of WR prospects in this draft and the Bills need for a speedy outside WR, it ought to be a no-brainer to pick the low hanging fruit rather than reaching for a lesser prospect on defense.

Better you went last night. I think the folks who go tonight are freeze their arses! The temp's not only going to be 40 or less but the winds are likely going to gusting over 20 MPH. ☹️

I pretty much agree. I'm not a great follower of draft prospects and prognosticators (I've only started paying attention to all the draft talk in the last two weeks or so), but I think most of the draft analysts don't see this draft as particularly good one for defensive players, particularly edge rushers. This draft is loaded with WR prospects, both in quality and quantity. It's seems much more likely that the Bills find a top WR in this draft on Day 1 than they find a top pass rusher in the first round.

It might be a internet glitch. If the "submit reply" button doesn't respond, if you hit submit again ... and again ... and again until it finally goes, the resulting post will have multiple copies of your original text in one large post. Been there, done that. Always check your posts ...

On the off chance that you are young person who is very new here and not a troll, I won't be crude or rude in my reply. However, there is another recent "trade Josh for Chicago's picks" thread -- along with its own poll. You should ask the moderators to combine this one with the earlier one.