SoTier

The only place the Bills have "5 quality OTs" is in McDermott's dreams, certainly not on the team any time in this century. Glenn is the best of them. Dawkins is probably next, and he's probably going to be moved to RT ... provided that the Bills don't do exactly what you think they might do, which is entirely possible because, like good WRs, DBs, and RBs, good LTs are "a dime a dozen". NO. Players are not robots. You can't just plug one in where ever you have a need like a lamp. Groy came into the league as a LG, and he failed. The Bills tried him at C, and he seems better there, so why try to flip him to the right side where he'd have to learn everything in reverse, which doesn't signal anything but disaster in the short term. That's not just the verdict of the current coaching staff but the previous one as well.

What exactly is all this "evidence otherwise"? I agree that the Pegulas are willing to spend money, but after they got conned by Ryan they seem to have stepped back and turned the running of the team over to "the football people" which would be a good move if Brandon and his "football people" were actually "football people" who knew something about football rather than bean counters dedicated to increasing profitabillity. Beane has no player personnel expertise, so basically, the only "football guy" is their rookie HC, Sean McDermott, who certainly has a much more modest resume than Dick Jauron, Chan Gailey or Doug Marrone, since all of them had head coaching experience in college or the NFL. How is letting Gilmore, Goodwin, and Woods in FA and then using 2017 first and second round draft picks on a DB and WR to replace them any different than all the other times over the last 20 years that the Bills have shed their best DBs and WRs and used draft picks on their replacements? Trading Watkins had nothing to do with his attitude but with the fact that the Bills were never going to offer him market value, even before he made his comments about WRs being paid more in general. If the Bills had been interested in signing him at all, they would have picked up his option; they just waitied until he demonstrated he was healthy to pull the trigger on the trade. I expect that the Watkins trade may very well join the other two great trades the Bills pulled off under Brandon's watch: All Pro LT Jason Peters to Philadelphia and All Pro RB Marshawn Lynch to Seattle. Basically, the team is doing exactly the same manure under the new ownership that it did under the old ownership. The names and faces of the lower echelon people -- where "the football people" are -- have changed but higher up the food chain -- the guys who make the real decisions -- haven't changed at all.

That's about par for the course with PFF's judgement of OLers ... I think their algorithm for rating OLers has a few logic errors. They once rated All Pro Jason Peters as "the worst LT in the league" when he was a Bill. I guess that's why the Bills traded him to Philly where he's only made All Pro a couple more times despite a serious Achilles injury a few years ago.

I agree with many of your sentiments, including your view of Ralph Wilson. I differ with you on your view of the Pegulas ... I think that after their brief fling with Ryan, they've surrendered to the "money ball" philosophy that has permeated the Bills organization since Russ Brandon, current President of both the Bills and the Sabres, joined the organization more than a decade ago, so I'm not sure that they're dedicated to winning any more than Ralph was. I keep hoping that they got burned with Ryan and turned to Brandon because of it. I keep hoping they wise up and can Brandon and his minions because otherwise the last 17 years of rearranging of the deck chairs on Titanic are going to continue. IMO, Beane and McDermott aren't all that different than Levy and Jauron. I don't know how long my Bills fandom will last. It's seriously declined, and especially this season, I can feel myself detaching. I gave up my seasons after the 2008 season when they rehired Jauron (probably the Bills HC I hated the most), but I would go to a couple of games a year. This year, I haven't attended one, primarily because I felt that the FO was doing the same thing it's always done: shedding talented players to save $$$ and trying to pawn off JAGs and ST refugees as "just as good". Well, they aren't ... as the performance of so many ex-Bills playing well for good teams like the Patriots, Eagles, and Chiefs proves. I watch Bills games sporadically, usually channel hopping to other games. I feel like I'm seriously contemplating divorce, this time from a team rather than from a spouse. Like a divorce, even after the marriage ends, you don't stop caring, you just stop subjecting yourself to all the anger and heartache.

I totally agree. The call in the Jests game on the field was TD, and there didn't seem to be clear enough evidence to the contrary. Belichick and Vlad Ducasse apparently know where the right bodies are buried. Rodgers landed wrong on his shoulder. Manure happens.

Ah, the proverbial "wait until next year!" only in the Bills' case, it's not about winning next year, it's getting ready to win next year. Of course, "next year" never comes because the Bills change coaching regimes about twice a presidential election cycle. Not quite. They replaced two good starting WRs with a JAG and a rookie, and the results have certainly not been "on par." Robert Woods has 22 catches and 0 TDs for 322 yards while Sammy Watkins has 15 receptions and 2 TDs for 222 yards. That's 37 catches, 544 yards and 2 TDs combined. Jordan Matthews has 10 catches for 1 TD and 162 yards while Zay Jones has 5 catches and 66 yards. That's 15 catches, 228 yards, and 1 TD combined. Dude, Peterman is NOT superman, although you keep politicking for him to be annointed SAVIOR . He probably needs an even better OL than Taylor. The Bills have an OL that is still struggling to adapt to a new blocking scheme. With Matthews and Clay injured, the Bills don't have a single NFL caliber receiver, and the running game is anemic for several reasons besides the poor OL play. With Vlad Ducasse still on the roster and Tolbert and Banyard as McCoy's backups, playing Russian roulette is McDermott's and Dennison's game. Lack of talent is going to bite this team in the arse big time as the season goes on ... Great/good coaches figure out how to maximize the talent they have; they're adaptable. Crappy coaches can only see one way to win games, and they have to have "their guys" to do it (at least according to them). I'll say it again: IMO McDermott seem to bears depressing resemblance to Dick Jauron, which doesn't bode well for the Bills ending the drought any time soon.

Nonsense. HCs, OCs, and DCs are NOT responsible for "teaching principles". They are designing strategies to beat opponents, and they are creating the offensive and defensive plays. Coaches who can only design strategies and plays they've personally experienced aren't really good candidates for HC, OC or DC jobs. It takes more than rote learning. It takes imagination. The problem for this constant flip flopping with offensive and defensive structures and styles with every coaching change rests squarely on the suits in OBD. Why are they hiring a rookie HC and giving him carte blanche to hire whomever he wants? Why is it that they can't insist that the new HC adhere to something like this: "hey, we've got a decent offense[defense], so bring in an OC[DC] who can/will improve on what we have"? Or, maybe, we'd like whomever you hire as DC (OC) to work with most of the starters we have now since they're really good." The last time I looked, the people doing the hiring are in charge, not the job applicants. Not all teams have these problems, either. The Broncos' first year HC Vance Joseph had his DC, Joe Woods, keep the same alignment (3-4 I believe) as the Broncos had used under Wade Phillips because the Ponies already had a great D with some great players, starting with Von Miller, rather than go with the defensive structure that he was most used to. The Denver new OC, Mike McCoy, has designed an offense that fits the players he's got, too, not tossing away the team's talent to get "his guys".

I think SaviorEdwards one of his, too ... with a very similar avatar.

No, in order to be a playoff team, the Bills need to have more wins than or own the tie breakers against 10 other AFC teams at the end of the season. Since they've failed to do that 17 straight times in this century, I'm not getting excited until they do that ... and it's unlikely they do it any time in the foreseeable future.

Especially for a team that hasn't made the playoffs in 17 years and doesn't have a 21st century offense?

And Matthews isn't?

I never thought to compare them since they play on different sides of the ball and they were shown the door at different times. Since I think Sammy is a world-class talent, I suspect that he'll do better than Gilmore over the long haul. His problem in LA has been that Goff doesn't have the same confidence level in him that he has in Kupp and Woods, but that will change as the season goes on, and especially next season if he re-signs with LA. What I find funny is the silence from all the Bills fans who justified trading Watkins because they claimed Watkins couldn't stay healthy. Now that Matthews, the supposedly always healthy WR who replaced Watkins, has struggled to stay healthy enough to play, you hear nothing but crickets.

Well, OP, speak for yourself when you say "everyone on this board would take McD over Lynn at the helm" because it sure doesn't apply to me. I've been skeptical of McDermott from the beginning, primarily because his philosophy and attitudes seem to bear too strong a resemblance to those of Dick Jauron. Additionally, the Bills FO, along with Beane and McDermott, stripped the team of much of its talent, especially on offense. Except for McCoy, the Bills no longer have a single game breaker. Aside from Taylor, Glenn, Charles Clay, Incognito, and Wood, the rest of their offensive players are, at best, JAGs, and most aren't even that good. I do not want a team full of choirboys lacking in NFL caliber talent who are JAGs and STers at best. I want a team full of smart, talented players who regularly win football games, and if they have opinions about stuff or they want to join in a protest or they complain about targets, I don't really care unless it affects their performance. Dennison has insisted on a blocking system that doesn't fit the OLers he's got, which has resulted in emasculating the Bills running game. That the Bills have only Tobert and Banyard behind McCoy means the Bills are finished if Shady gets hurt. Of course, I suppose it doesn't matter to the Bills OC who envisions the passing game opening up the running game ... despite the fact that except for the injured Matthews, the Bills don't have a single NFL caliber WR. I want an OC and DC who adapt their "systems" to fit the talent they have, not throw away talent to bring in "their guys". I especially don't want to play not to lose, and I get a sense that that's how McDermott plays the game. He does gamble on the rare occasion but the offense that Dennison's put together is designed to nibble defenses to death rather than just stick a fork in them (as NE does). It's a prescription for losing.

Why does the offense "have to" improve? The offense lacks NFL caliber talent at WR, at TE now that Clay is hurt, and behind Shady at RB. The OL continues to struggle, and aside from Wood and Incognito, the starters are barely NFL caliber. Vlad Ducasse as a potential right guard consitutes a black hole on the OL. Nothing so far suggests that the HC and/or OC have any idea how to create a late twentieth century, much less twenty-first century offense, even if they had all the talent in the world. They certainly haven't demonstrated any ability to create an offense to maximize what little talent they have to work with. ^^^ It's not experience. It's better protection, it's better receivers, and it's surely better coaching. My guess is that if Tyrod and Carson switched places, Carson's game would go down the toilet and Tyrod would look at least as good as the 2016 version of Ryan Tannehill.

I guess you really don't like Newton, huh? I've never been a great fan of Newton, and after watching last night's game, I have to agree more with you than with the "Newton is elite" crowd. He's not. He's a decent QB but if he couldn't run, he'd be dog meat because his passing skills and his leadership wouldn't be good enough. I think we saw that last night. He couldn't make the clutch plays except with his feet. The QB in that game who sparkled was Wentz. If he continues to develop, he'll be a keeper.

Whyever not? If the WRs on the Bills practice squad were any good, they'd be starting already.

In the alternative universe inhabited by many BB fans, the very best QBs in the NFL are more than willing to play for vet minimum to be Buffalo Bills so they can play behind a suspect OL and throw to one of the worst, if not the worst, WRs corps seen in the NFL since the merger. In reality, Cousins isn't coming to Buffalo because he's not stupid enough to put his future in the hands of this incompetent organization when he can do much better. Then again, Cousins isn't coming to Buffalo because the Bills are either in incapable of or disinterested in giving any player the kind of contract a bonafide franchise QB commands. They'll either go with Taylor and Peterman next year or they'll jettison Taylor, keep Peterman, and draft a QB in the first round. My guess is that they'll do the latter because a first round QB with no veteran starter ahead of him is going excite fans and convince them to renew or buy season tix.

Whoopy-dee! Whoopy-doo! The Bills have the same record as the NE Patriots and the NY Jests 5 games into the season. In case you've forgotten, this ain't the first time they've been leading/sharing the division lead at this point in the season over the last 18 years. I have "Billieve", however, that they'll keep their amazing streak going and figure out how to end up missing the playoffs again. Absolutely. 17 years and counting ... no end in sight.

Keep telling yourself that ... Is Mason Rudolph going to block for himself and catch his own passes, too? My guess is that the Bills are highly unlikely to finish with a better record than the Patriots, may very well finish with a worse record than the Rams, and will likely struggle to end the season with a better record than the Niners but dream on ... I didn't realize that Brian Hoyer and Jared Goff were considered good/great QBs ....

Well, sir, you may claim it's not the same management but the new management is doing the same stuff that the old management did 8 years ago or 12 years ago or 15 years ago, and I'm a "if it looks like a duck and waddles like a duck and swims like a duck, it's likely a duck" kind of person. So, how is letting Pro Bowl CB Stephon Gilmore walk in FA in 2017 any different than letting 1999 first round pick CB Antoine Winfield walk in FA in 2004 or; 2001 first round pick CB Nate Clement walk in FA in 2007 or; 2006 first round pick S Donte Whitner walk in FA in 2011? The Bills traded away All Pro LT Jason Peters for a low first rounder in 2009 ... when they didn't have an NFL caliber LT on the team. They traded away young WR Sammy Watkins in 2017 for a second rounder and a backup DB when they didn't have another NFL caliber WR on the roster. Tell me what the hell's changed with the supposed "new management" ...

What the Bills ALWAYS get when they send talented players to other teams because they don't want to pay them: next to nothing compared to their worth. My guess is that they get some pissy draft picks along with a JAG WR. I called the Bills sending Dareus somewhere else back in the first or second game of the season when that story came out about him only being in the game for a limited number of defensive snaps.

Well, why not add "shuffle the draft pick" game to the "shuffle the DB" and "shuffle the WR" and "shuffle the RB" games that the Bills have been playing for the past 17 or 18 years? The Bills may have new faces along the sidelines, in the FO, and even in the owners' box, but damn, they're still operating under the same philosophy that's been guiding the team since at least the Music City Miracle: profit is more important than wins. They do this by letting the good DBs, WRs, and RBs that they've developed leave either through FA or trade rather than pay them the going rate for players of their caliber. They replace them with either players on their rookie contracts drafted in the first or second rounds or with JAGs, ST refugees, and other assorted scrubs who come a whole lot cheaper. That pattern has been a constant throughout the Drought, and it looks like it's continuing. While every NFL team may lack depth, they do not lack depth at virtually every position like the Bills do, especially this year, at least not if they have realistic hopes of making the playoffs. Moreover, the Bills have guys who aren't NFL caliber starters starting, so how good can their backups be? The Bills QB and TE depth, before Clay's injury, are about par for the NFL, and you are correct that Matthews is the only NFL caliber starting WR on the Bills roster, but have you considered who the Bills have backing up Shady? Mike Tolbert ... and Joe Banyard? In his 6 years in the NFL, including 2017, Banyard has rushed 23 times for 95 yards. On the OL, they have no good young players to develop to replace 34-year-old Richie Incognito and 30-year-old Eric Wood if either gets hurt or decides to retire. At least they have some young OTs in development behind Cordy Glenn (Dawkins, Mills, and Henderson) unless they decide to jettison Glenn rather than continue to pay him because they think that Dawkins is "good enough".. It's the same story on the defensive side of the ball. Kyle Williams is 34. Dareus looks to be on his way out ... perhaps even this season. The starting LBs include 2 guys who were backups on other teams. The secondary players are unimpressive individually although they have played decently as a unit, except perhaps against Cincinatti when AJ Green burned them for 189 yards all by himself. The guys backing them up, though, are as lacking in quality as the guys backing up most of the offensive starters. But, hey, we all know that depth doesn't matter because it's all Tyrod Taylor's fault.

Exactly this. Last season, Watkins, Woods, and Goodwin constituted the best talent that the Bills have had a WR (you can add Clay in there as a good pass catching TE) since 2002 when Drew Bledsoe set team passing records for the season as well as for individual stats. Oh, and in the 2003 off season, the Bills dismantled that receiving corps via FA and trades just like they dismantled the 2016 receiving corps. Deja vue all over again. I said wasn't sure. What everybody who remembers 1973 remembers is the runnng game.

The ONLY reason that I wouldn't call it the worse WR corps ever is because I'm not sure that the 1973 Buffalo Bills even had a real WR corps. That was the year that OJ Simpson ran for 2003 yards in a 14 game season. The Bills played OT Paul Costa at TE, so they obviously valued run blocking. I suppose those WRs were kind of afterthoughts, much like the WRs on the 2005 Chicago Bears when they were bulldozing their way to 11-5 and the NFCN title.

Who among the Bills WRs is at least half as good as Odell Beckham? Oh, in case you don't follow the NFL except as it pertains to FFB, the Giants are 0-5 despite having a good defense, and they're further in the toilet because they've lost Beckham for the season. Their other two WRs are out, too.