SoTier

I think that Rosen is done in the NFL. I think he doesn't have the presence on the field (Brian Flores called it 'body language') needed to a starting QB in the NFL. I think he's unlikely to get another serious shot at a starting job.

Some positions taken in the bottom third of the first round are pretty productive at producing Pro Bowlers, especially interior OLers and DBs. Alex Mac, Maurkise Pouncey, and Dave DeCastro were all taken after #20. DBs like White, Aqib Talib, and Ed Reed. Troy Polumalu was taken at #18 IIRC.

I forgot about Mike Williams, but he was another great example. Unlike Maybin, however, he was at least rated a top prospect while Maybin was rated much lower. I think the problem with Williams was that he was a RT in college that the Bills attempted to turn into a LT in the pros. He simply didn't have the skill set to be an NFL LT. He probably would have had a longer, better career if he'd been kept at RT or moved to OG early on his career.

I disagree that "often times players this late in the draft have a 2nd round grade". The bottom third of the first round is an excellent spot to pick up OLers, especially guards and centers. With RBs being seriously discounted in this era, great RBs can be had there, and there are a couple in this draft class. Certainly great CBs and Ss can be found in this area, too. Teams get into problems when they decide that they NEED to draft a QB or WR or DE in the first round, and settle for a lesser prospect at a specific position rather than taking a much better prospect at another position -- and that can happen at any spot in the draft. The classic Bills blunder in this manner occurred in 2009 when the Bills, with the #11 pick, took bust Aaron Maybin because they needed an edge rusher while leaving much better prospects like Brian Orapko and Clay Matthews on the board.

^^^ The Bills need better role and depth players than they currently have at a lot of positions. Just because a team can't afford to have superstars at all positions doesn't mean that it has to fill its roster only with JAGs, practice squad refugees, and Day 3 draft picks. Almost all of the playoff teams that actually won playoff games this season have at least a couple of well known but past their prime veterans from other teams who were acquired for limited roles or "just in case". Some of those older "been there, done that" vets are exactly what young teams on the upswing need to have in the locker room and on the sidelines. I would love to have Bradham on the Bills in that kind of role.

IMO, the Bills desperately need a WR1 in 2020 and the chances of getting one in the draft who would be that from opening day is between slim and none. At best, they could expect a WR taken #22 to eventually develop into a WR1. Moreover, not only is the draft is much more a crapshoot than acquiring a top veteran, I'm an advocate of taking BPA over need. I don't want to see the Bills take a WR with only second round talent at #22 because they need a WR and pass on a much better prospect at another position like OL, RB or DB. Either trading for a WR like Golladay or Diggs or signing a top vet in FA works for me. Acquire a top veteran WR and draft a promising one. If the Bills are serious about building a perennial playoff contender, they have to put quality talent around their QB no matter who that QB is. Look at what having top offensive talent did for both the Saints and the Chiefs when their starting QBs were injured and missed games early in the season.

That's a valid priority but Beane didn't prioritize the OL either until 2019. The OL in 2017 was below average but serviceable but then Wood was forced into retirement by injury. That wasn't on McDermott or Beane. However, the Bills got rid of Incognito, which may have been partly on McDermott/Beane but it's not clear because of Incognito's mental issues. Then the Bills traded away their best OLer, LT Cordy Glenn, in order to move up in the first round of the draft. That's a competent C, a Pro Bowl LG, and an above average LT missing from the OL. The Bills replaced them with backups, bottom feeder career backups, and practice squad refugees. In the draft, the Bills only got around to drafting an OLer toward the end of the fifth round, Wyatt Teller. Teller was traded away to Cleveland for a pair of Day 3 draft picks at the end of the 2019 preseason rather than cutting him. In 2018, the Bills essentially had no plan for offense at all much less any priority for offense except to make a big splash by drafting a QB high in the first round. In fact, I would argue that 2018 was essentially a reprise of the Bills "offensive" plan of 2013 when Brandon and Whaley drafted EJ Manuel in order to excite the fan base. The difference was that there were actually QBs in the 2018 draft who were worth drafting in the first round.

You are continually making excuses for the stupid offensive decisions the McDermott/Beane regime made in 2017-2018. There really aren't any. They demonstrated remarkable incompetence in their offensive personnel transactions, including hiring terrible offensive assistant coaches and poor draft decisions (more so in 2017), that suggested they were both completely clueless about offensive football, starting with not re-signing or trading away three NFL caliber WRs in 2017 and not replacing any of them with WRs good enough to play in the NFL much less start, until 2019. Furthermore, the Bills "cap hell" in 2018 was largely of McDermott/Beane's own making as they not only sent players packing without regard to cap implications as in dead cap space as well as the cost of replacing those players. They also wasted cap space by trading for/signing FAs like Corey Coleman and AJ McCarron. In McCarron's case, it seems that he signed with the Bills with the belief that he would get a legitimate shot at being the starter and felt that he didn't get a fair chance at doing so. If the Bills didn't intend to have Allen playing early in his rookie season, then they should have kept Tyrod Taylor or brought in a FA QB better than McCarron to be the starter -- and they definitely should have brought in a better backup QB than Nathan Peterman. They literally dithered for a month during the season after Peterman proved himself incompetent waiting for Derek Anderson to decide whether to come out of retirement as if he were the only back up QB available! Moreover, they had no excuse for not hiring an experienced QB coach for their prize rookie. David Culley's only experience as a QB coach had been a single football season 30 years before in a small collegiate program. It was only in 2019 that the Bills FO started performing competently. Beane and McDermott replaced most of the offensive assistants. They added an experienced, dedicated QB coach for Allen. Beane signed some decent OLers and WRs in FA. They drafted better, too, on the offensive side of the ball. My guess is that there was a significant change in the Bills organization, and that Beane was given more authority in 2019 than he had previously. The resignation of "Mr Moneyball" Russ Brandon in the wake of a sexual harassment scandal in May, 2018, seems likely to be the change that allowed Beane/McDermott to demonstrate that they might actually know what they were doing. In 2017-2018, the Bills personnel moves were depressingly similar to the ones made throughout Brandon's tenure first as the Bills defacto GM and then defacto owner between 2006-2013.

When you give up a fortune in draft capital to move up to draft a first round QB, what higher "priorities" can there be than adding a WR when your team didn't have a single NFL starter caliber WR on the roster???? I disagree. Veteran players who move to other teams are known quantities to the NFL talent evaluators while college players entering the NFL are much less well known. When veteran players fail on new teams, it's much more often that the team trading for them or signing them put those players into situations that don't fit their skill sets than that veteran players suddenly quit once they get a big pay day. Furthermore, don't discount FO incompetence or hubris is teams' failures in acquiring veteran players.

I don't think that the QB bust rate has changed. What's "changed" I think is simply our perspective. In the last decade (2009-2018) these QBs have been drafted in the first round: 2009: Matthew Stafford (#1), Mark Sanchez (#5), Josh Freeman (#17) 2010: Sam Bradford (#1), Tim Tebow (#25) 2011: Cam Newton (#1), Jake Locker (#8), Blaine Gabbert (#10), Christian Ponder (#12) 2012: Andrew Luck (#1), Robert Griffin III (#2), Ryan Tannehill (#8), Brandon Weeden (#22) 2013: EJ Manuel (#16) 2014: Blake Bortles (#3), Johnny Manziel (#22), Tony Bridgewater (#32) 2015: Jameis Winston (#1), Marcus Mariota (#2) 2016: Jared Goff (#1), Carson Wentz (#2), Paxton Lynch (#26) 2017: Mitchell Trubisky (#3), Patrick Mahomes (#10), Deshaun Watson (#12) 2018: Baker Mayfield (#1), Sam Darnold (#3), Josh Allen (#7), Josh Rosen (#10), Lamar Jackson (#32) These are unquestionable top NFL QBs. These are decent starters but definitely not unquestionably top NFL QBs. These are promising but still unproven QBs. I think 2 things skew our perspective of younger QBs. First is that the jury is still out on most of the young QBs taken in the last 3 years, including Goff and Wentz who have looked really good but not great, although Wentz's performance the last month of the 2019 season may have put him into the "top NFL QB" level. The second reason that it appears that QBs are not failing as much as previously is that there has been some outstanding QBs coming from after the first round. In 2011, Andy Dalton came from the second round while in 2012 there was Russell Wilson in the third and Kirk Cousins in the fourth. Certainly Derek Carr and Jimmy Garoppolo from the 2014 second round have had better careers than any of the 2014 first rounders. Jacoby Brisett came from the third round of 2016, and Dak Prescott from the fourth round of the same draft. Prior to 2011, you could count on the fingers of one hand the number of good/great QBs drafted after the first round since 2000 and have two unused digits: Tom Brady (2000), Drew Brees (2001), and Matt Schaub (2004).

There is no such thing as "sustainability" in the NFL. Roster turn over is a fact of life whether teams are consistently competing in the playoffs or consistently missing them. Plain and simple, the modern NFL is dominated by teams that figure out how to manage the salary cap, and those are the teams that win consistently, make conference championships, and win Super Bowls. Only the Buccaneers among Super Bowl winners in the last 20 years have failed to be a consistent winner. They have not made the playoffs since 2008. Only the Falcons have been a consistent winner that has only made the Super Bowl once in the last year, and only the Vikings have been a consistent winner that has failed to make the Super Bowl in the last 20 years. In the 20 years since 2000, these are the Super Bowl winners: New England Patriots - 20 winnings seasons - 18 playoff seasons - 13 conference championship appearances - 9 SB appearances - 6 SBs Indianapolis Colts - 15 winning seasons - 15 playoff seasons - 4 conference championship appearances - 2 SB appearances - 1 SB Green Bay Packers - 15 winning seasons - 14 playoff seasons - 5 conference championship appearances - 1 SB appearance - 1 SB Seattle Seahawks - 15 winning seasons - 13 playoff seasons - 3 conference championship appearances - 3 SB appearances - 1 SB Philadelphia Eagles - 14 winning seasons - 13 playoff seasons - 6 conference championship appearances - 2 SB appearances - 1 SB Pittsburgh Steelers - 15 winning seasons - 12 playoff seasons - 5 conference championship appearances - 3 SB appearances - 2 SBs Baltimore Ravens - 14 winning seasons - 12 playoff seasons - 4 conference championship appearances - 2 SB appearances - 2 SBs Denver Broncos - 12 winning seasons - 9 playoff seasons - 3 conference championship appearances - 2 SB appearances - 1 SB Kansas City Chiefs - 11 winning seasons - 9 playoff seasons - 2 conference championship appearances -1 SB appearance - 1 SB New Orleans Saints - 10 winning seasons - 9 playoff seasons - 3 conference championship appearances - 1 SB appearance -1 SB New York Giants - 10 winning seasons - 8 playoff seasons - 3 conference championship appearances - 3 SB appearances -2 SBs Tampa Bay Buccaneers - 6 winning seasons -5 playoff seasons - 1 conference championship appearances - 1 SB appearance -1 SB If the Bills don't strive to win the Super Bowl, they certainly aren't likely to become "consistent winners".

Seriously, does any Chiefs fan lament that they paid Sammy Watkins $16 million and he's their WR3? One trade for one player doesn't make it a policy -- me

Certainly better than anybody the Bills would pick up with the 22nd pick. Exactly right about paying people. White is the only one that will be due big $$$ soon. Dawkins and Milano are in need of new deals but not due big pay days. They're decent players, but not enough above average to warrant paying them more than the average starter money at their positions. If somebody wanted to offer one or both big $$$ then maybe the Bills should let them leave rather than pass on the opportunity to bring in a WR like Golliday simply to keep both, and if it came down to picking one of them, I'd sure keep Dawkins rather than Milano simply because starting OTs, even average ones, are harder to come by than starting LBs. Poyer is due a decent pay day but it shouldn't break the bank. Allen and Edmunds have 3 more years on their rookie deals, and they both have lots of room to improve before they start thinking big $$$. More importantly, the Bills absolutely need to determine what they have in Josh Allen ASAP because the salaries for top QBs are over $30 million now and racing upward. For decent starters, it's $15-$20 million. For quality veteran backups it's $5-$10. All QBs need protection and targets, and young QBs especially are helped by having a strong running game. The Bills OL is adequate but could be better. Once Allen gets past Beasley, Brown, and Singletary, though, he doesn't have good enough receivers or runners to help him. Are Allen's mediocre passing numbers primarily because of his own shortcomings or primarily because too often the lack of first rate offensive talent limits what kind of plays the Bills can run and how much success any QB would have? Maybe Dawson Knox can develop into a good pass catching TE, but adding a WR of Golliday's caliber would enable the Bills to get a much clearer picture of Allen's worth. What I know the Bills can't afford is to pay Allen $30+ million a year when his performance doesn't justify that kind of money because they're still waiting for him to "get it" because he still doesn't have good protection, good targets, and a good running game. Surrounding Allen with plenty of talent eliminates the excuses that we've heard for Allen's play for two seasons now (and which, in many cases, were very valid). So, if the Bills could swing a trade for Golliday, especially if they agreed to a new deal in advance, I'd be a happy camper.

Not necessarily. As I've said before, lots of kids who play OT in college end up playing OG in the pros. If Ford is a better pro OG than he is a pro OT -- and physically that seems likely to be the case -- then he should be playing OG and they need to find somebody else to play RT. It's the old trying to fit a square peg into a round hole thing.

Actually, the Bills need more elite playmakers AND they need better subs at the skills positions on the offensive side. The Bills have a decent QB, 2 decent WRs, and 1 decent RB. They have a promising rookie TE. Duke Johnson should not be the WR3. Frank Gore and TJ Yeldon need to be gone next season. The Bills need to be active in FA to bring in better offensive skills players for 2020 -- as well as upgrading the OL. And a big absolute 'NO!' to Funchess. He's not as good as Johnson.

I agree. I think OL needs an upgrade immediately, only slightly behind WR and RB. They might find a proverbial "diamond in the rough" for the OL in the draft but it might take him 2 or 3 years to become a good NFL starter. The Bills need better protection for Allen in 2020.

Horses, like dogs, have long been domesticated -- more than 5000 years -- and hawks have been used for hunting for more than 3000 years. Taima the Seahawk is an Augur hawk and was hatched at the World Bird Sanctuary in St Louis MO. His handler has 30 years experience as a falconer. He has a business that uses birds of prey to control bird, rodent, and rabbit populations in the western states. The raven mascot for the Ravens come from the Maryland Zoo. They are African ravens that are more amenable to handling than the common ravens that are indigenous to western Maryland. At one time I think that the Bengals had a live tiger mascot but that was quite a while ago.

Since Ford seems to be a better fit physically as an NFL guard than as a RT, I'd prefer the Bills move him to RG and add another RT. It's pretty common for collegiate OTs to be moved to OG in the pros because the NFL game is much more specialized. A great/good OG is much more effective than a mediocre OT.

I think that it depends upon what happens in FA and in the draft. They need another solid veteran WR next year, so going after one in FA makes sense. Since this is a deep WR draft, there should be very good prospects available in Round 2 although they might be a season or a season and a half to develop. It's also possible that the WR that the Bills really like is gone by #22. I don't want to see them trade up to take a WR because they are going to have to start to pay some of their own homegrown players if they are serious about becoming an NFL power, so they need to replenish their roster with youngsters on rookie contracts. Having one good RB isn't enough for a playoff contending team. The Bills offense suffered in 2019, especially later in the year, because neither Gore nor Yeldon were good enough. Except for a great OL, a good/great running game is a QB's best friend. If Swift is a better prospect at RB than any of the available WRs are prospects at WR, then they should go with Swift. Don't sacrifice playmaking talent for need, especially in the first round. The Bills need playmakers on both sides of the ball.

I think I misstated the segment's premise. I think it was actually about the fan bases that were most deserving of a Super Bowl. During it, they listed the teams that had never been to the Super Bowl and those that had never won the Super Bowl but I don't think that they were only limiting it to teams that hadn't won the Lombardi.

He picked the Lions. Kyle Brandt picked the Vikings -- he called them "they were the Bills before the Bills" in regards to having lost 4 Super Bowls in 7 years. Pete Schrager picked the Jets.

For those of you who missed it, the Bills got a double shot of love on GMFB this morn ing. In a segment on teams that hadn't won a Super Bowl and which fan bases were most deserving of a Lombardi, Kay Adams went with the Bills and Bills Mafia. The other teams were the Vikings, Lions, and Jets. The GMFB crew also voted on their "Angry Run of the Year" from their weekly Angry Runs segment. Dawson Knox won for his Week 3 catch, winning over Mark Ingram, George Kittle, and Shy Tuttle.

At least the Bears took a QB in the first round. The Bills needed a QB but they passed on Mahomes to take Nathan Peterman.

IIRC, there was a near mutiny among the Bills vets due to Bullough's methods, but I don't remember the details.

My least favorite Bill of all time is Russ Brandon. I'll excuse Wilson for hiring him because Wilson was an old guy who couldn't adapt to modern NFL, and probably believed that Brandon's bill of goods was viable. Since Brandon also convinced the much younger and competent Terry Pegula to not only keep him on but promote him, speaks to exactly how persuasive Brandon was. Until he was fired for lying to the Pegulas about his sexual harassing of a Sabres employee, he gave Bills fans 12+ years of misery -- and his influence may still permeate the Bills organization. Brandon controlled the Bills from 2006 through 2018. During the 12 full years that Brandon "reigned", the Bills had 2 winning seasons -- 2014 and 2017. They made the playoffs once in 2017. They won 83 games over 12 seasons -- an average of less than 7 games a season. Brandon hired my most hated Bills HC of all time, Dick Jauron. Brandon blatantly manipulated the fan base with big $$$ FA signings that masked the reality that the teams he and his minions were filled with bottom feeder players. Bringing in Terrell Owens in 2009 was the most egregious example. I think the Bills sold 55k+ season tickets because of that signing. My biggest concern about Beane as the Bills GM is that since he was hired when Brandon controlled the Bills that he shares Brandon's "money ball" philosophy. Hopefully, winning football games rather than making more profits means more to Pegula and Beane than it did to Wilson and Brandon.