SoTier

This. I think that what Beane does this off season will tell us whether the Bills are building a Super Bowl contender or one just "good enough" to make the playoffs more often than once every two decades.

I disagree. McDermott and Beane -- and Beane's predecessors, Brandon and Whaley -- gutted the team of offensive talent between 2017 and 2019. They got rid of starting caliber players -- Robert Woods, Marquise Goodwin, Sammy Watkins, Richie Incognito, Cordy Glenn, and LeSean McCoy -- and replaced them with JAGs and non-NFL caliber players. That's not "focusing" on the offense, it's simply swapping out good players with cheaper ones to save $$$. The Bills drafted Allen and then literally threw him to the wolves without a competent QB coach, an NFL caliber OL and receiving corps. Again, that's not "focusing" on the offense; it's simply placating the fan base by giving them false hope in the person of one player. McDermott and Beane only started to address the mess they'd created on offense in 2019 with the addition of some OLers and receivers, but in a modest way. The 2019 OL, WRs, and RBs were not nearly as good as those units that McDermott inherited when he became HC. At the very least, the Bills need at least 2 more starting quality receivers, another quality RB, and additional upgrading of the OL for 2020. That's a major investment, and it's necessary because of previous failure to really focus on the offense. Fans who think that the Bills offense is "good enough" are deluding themselves.

I'm much more optimistic about Allen's chances of becoming an elite QB than I was before 2019. If he can again make significant strides in the off season and throughout next season, he'll be an excellent QB. This past season, there were limits to what the Bills could do on offense because they didn't have enough good weapons on offense, and that may have held Allen back. One of the keys to Mahomes' success has been the quality of the weapons available to him -- and how many he has. On another team, Mahomes would still shine, but probably not nearly as brightly. I want to see the Bills give Allen the opportunity to shine as brightly as he can by giving him more and better targets supported by a running game that's more than Singletary and a has been and a never was ... an upgrade on the OL wouldn't hurt, either. If the Bills don't support Allen well enough next year to let him demonstrate just how much ability he really has, how can they honestly evaluate him, good or bad, when it's time to move beyond his rookie contract? They need to figure out if they have a $10-15 million QB or a $30-35 million QB, and next season would be the best year to do it.

If this draft is as deep in WRs as the draftniks claim, then this is the way to go. A vet like Green would give Allen an instant target and give time for the rookies to develop. IMO, a history of concussions or chronic knee issues would be bigger detriments to signing a player than having an ankle injury.

That "nonsense" is going to be around until Mahomes retires unless Josh Allen becomes an elite QB himself. Deal with it.

I don't think I could vote for Rivers myself, but I think he may eventually make the HOF. He certainly isn't a first ballot guy. Many fans forget how talented those Chargers teams were early on in Rivers' career. They had monster defenses led by Junior Seau and Shawn Merriman and prolific offenses. They would win 12, 13, 14 games in the regular season but fizzle in the playoffs. Later in Rivers' career, the Chargers weren't nearly as talented but it seemed whenever they put together a playoff contender, Rivers' poor play left them either outside looking in or one and done. In his career, Rivers has only led his team to 2 playoff wins. Rivers is the anti-Eli. A lot of critics diss Eli in HOF discussions because his stats aren't outstanding compared to other QBs of his generation, but Eli helped his team win games more often than he caused them to lose them even when those Giants teams weren't all that talented. When he had some good talent, though, Eli came through. The name of the game in the NFL is winning, and when Eli had the opportunity, he took his team to two Super Bowl wins. In fact, Eli has as many Super Bowl wins as Rivers has playoff wins.

Rivers has always thrown too many picks at inopportune times in games. He is what he's always been, a very unclutch QB who plays small in big games going back to early in his career when the Chargers were loaded with talent.

In 2018, the Bills QB coach was David Culley who's experience coaching QBs consisted of 1 year at a small college program back in the 1980s. He had other coaching experience but wasn't specifically a QB coach. Since position coaches are charged with teaching/improving players' techniques, and Allen certainly needed help with his passing mechanics, the Bills should have brought in an experienced position coach for QBs, even if that meant reorganizing the offensive coaching staff. With an adequate QB coach, Ken Dorsey, Allen made spectacular progress in 2019. I think that he could have made even more progress if he'd had better coaching in his rookie season.

Matthew Stafford and Phillip Rivers say "hi." Moreover, prior to the emergence of Mahomes, the Chiefs were a perennial contender with Alex Smith at QB, and the Vikings have been a regular playoff team without having that great QB. It's not so simple as acquiring a QB; the team has to provide that QB with protection, weapons, and a defense, too. Even the GOAT Brady couldn't get the Pats to the Super Bowl by himself. Great post, and dead on. The biggest issue I have with Beane and McDermott is that they haven't demonstrated much urgency in giving Allen the support he needs to prove himself, starting with their failure to hire a bonafide QB coach last season to help Allen improve his game.

Why not? The Chiefs have had 7 straight winning seasons. They made the playoffs in 6 of those 7 seasons, and have won the AFC West the last 4 years. Last season they just missed going to the Super Bowl against the eventual SB champion Patriots, and this year they punched their ticket to the Big Show emphatically. Moreover, the Patriots have built a dynasty of 20 years duration without being great at drafting well in the first round. Over the years, so many of the players who help create that dynasty either weren't drafted in the first round or were some other team's first rounder ... Brady, Gronkowski, Edelmann, Welker, Seymour, Moss, Gilmore, etc. Sour grapes much?

I think that Eli will make the HOF, possibly even on the first ballot, because he came up big when it counted most. Winning big games and making clutch plays in big games counts more than stats. Eli came up big repeatedly in the Giants two Super Bowl runs. In 2007, he literally carried the Giants' offense, throwing for almost 5000 yards, one of the few wild card teams to win a Super Bowl. In both Super Bowl runs, the Giants won the NFC Conference Championship in OT. In both his Super Bowls, Eli made key passes to lead his team to the Lombardi.

Totally agree. The biggest reason for the Bills failures during the first 16 years of the 21st century was because they did not keep the good young players they developed. It significantly impacted the draft because they too frequently used their first and second round draft picks to fill the holes they created by either trading/not re-signing their best young veterans. For myself, I'd like to see the Bills add a quality WR in FA because they need one immediately -- they still need to determine if Allen truly is a franchise QB, and giving him better targets is the best way to do that -- and the draft is always risky. After that, I think that they'd probably do much better upgrading the middle and bottom of the roster with FAs rather than sinking most of their cap space into a couple of big names.

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.