TigerJ

I didn't take this as disrespectful of Brady at all. White is simply saying that it doesn't matter who the QB is, it's his job to go out and play to the best of his ability and do the things he's been taught to do.

I think the article makes some good points, but there are some half truths and presumptions lurking within its paragraphs too. Essentially, the article maintains that all but the worst QBs can succeed in the NFL. It states that all but the worst and best QBs are system QBs. The worst ones, everyone presumes is doomed to fail and the best ones can succeed with any offense, but the large group in between has to have the right offense for him to succeed. He gives several examples that seem to bear this out Jared Goff and Case Keenum are having banner years despite having had miserable seasons a year ago when bother were on the same team (the Rams). The Rams let Keenum go. He was picked up by Minnesota. They kept Goff as a #1 overall draft pick, but dumped their coaching staff (Jeff Fisher - running a "stodgy, outdated old 90's style ball control offense). Tyrod is mentioned as a QB currently stuck in a system that does not work for him. That might be true, but it might not be too. The problem is we haven't seen the system where he can really flourish. Tyrod has been OK at times, both under Greg Roman.Anthony Lynn and under Rick Dennison, but he has never set the league on fire. Until he does you can't say as a set in stone fact that all he needs is the right system. Tell me what that system is. My concern is alway that when you have a QB with a significantly limited skill set, as Tyrod has, (limited ability to make quick and accurate reads and a reluctance to throw timing passes where the receiver is supposed to get open after the ball leaves the QB's hand) it's too easy for a good defense to take away the limited things that Tyrod does well. "We made him play QB." I want my QB to be well rounded enough so that when the opposing defense takes away something, my QB can hurt them with something else. Someone please prove to me that Tyrod can do that, because I don't see it.

It's a plausible scenario. We'll see.

Clearly, the numbers issue at WR is going to affect the Bills' decision making in the off season. The point has been made that Jay Jones, Kelvin Benjamin and Jordan Matthews are all more or less possession receivers. Deonte Thompson is a speed receiver, but he hasn't done enough to this point to show the Bills he can be a consistent bog play receiver. That means it is likely that the Bills are going to try and draft some speed at WR. The Bills are not going to dump their draft pick from last season, especially since he has started to produce. It also doesn't look like they would want to dump Kelvin Benjamin so soon after acquiring him. I'm assuming the torn meniscus doesn't have long term health implications for him. So, among those three, Matthews is the least likely to stick with the Bills, especially since impending free agency is presumably going to drive up his salary.

This is the reason I don't like the notion of a tradeup for a QB. Is Mason Rudolph the guy? Is Baker Mayfield the better prospect? Or Josh Rosen? Or Josh Allen? Or Lamar Jackson? Even Clayton Thorson and Luke Falk are rated ahead of Mason Rudolph by some observers. I'm not saying they are all better than Rudolph or that Rudolph couldn't be better than all of them. I'm saying there is no consensus on how to rank all these QBs. Now NFL GMs don't generally base their player rankings on what media guys think , or fan mock drafts, but the lack of consensus would seem to indicate that the QB picture is somewhat muddled at best. It also seems that the lack of a clear picture on the ranking of the top QBs in this draft means a trade up for such a big question mark is awfully pricey. If Brandon Beane disagrees and pulls the trigger on a trade up under those circumstances, he'd better be right.

I am not a Ben McAdoo fan, but it's clear the Giants aren't making the playoffs, and he might as well experiment. The Giants' offense clearly isn't working with Eli. Maybe Geno gets a couple games and then maybe Davis Webb will close out their dismal season. That way McAdoo's successor will have a bit more of a clue as to what the Giants have in the stable moving forward.

I want to know two things before I would consider a trade: 1. Is Cordy Glenn's injury one that is likely to be a nagging one, that will bother him the rest of his career? 2. What is the best pick I can get for him? 3. Can Dion Dawkins adapt to playing right tackle where he struggled in preseason?

Not that I disagree about the penalty on Gaines being a terrible call, but I would like to see how this might look before I can buy into it. It seems like there could be lots of problems, not the least of which could be that certain games could drag on a long time. Do you handle it like the way other reviews are done, with the coaches having the ability to throw their red flags? With the greater number of reviewable calls, do you add to the number of challenges that coaches can make, or do you keep them the same?

What's baffling? Tyrod is always going to get some wins, but there is reason to doubt that the Bills can ever be more of a fringe playoff team with Tyrod as a starter and averaging less than 200 yards per game passing.

I agree with the OP that poor drafting has been a huge obstacle to building a winning franchise in Buffalo. I would add that drafting has also been negatively impacted by the lack of continuity on the team. New regimes come in with their own particular philosophies, offensive and defensive schemes, and they need to retool the player personnel because a lot of players don't fit all schemes. Ron Darby and Stephon Gilmore are good man coverage corners but don't fit a largely zone scheme. Ragland may turn out to be a pretty good LB for KC, but didn't fit what McDermott wants to run on defense. Kiko Alonso didn't fit what Wrecks Ryan wanted to do. There are more examples from your list too. It's nice when you can draft a scheme versatile player, but their are not enough of them to fill out your whole roster, and GMs aren't looking for players who can do what a future coach wants. They focus on who can help the most under the team's present circumstances. Sometimes you have to change out your head coach and GM, but Buffalo has done it on occasion when maybe a little more patience might have allowed for eventual success. The poor drafting record comes from both a poor personnel staff and the frequent turnover of coaches and schemes.

My post was a general answer to a hypothetical question that could affect any franchise. I largely agree with you. The Bills do have an issue with age on their roster, but outside the QB position they are not in terrible shape. They need an upgrade in their linebacking and the middle of their D-line. They also need to finally get their right tackle position settled and find a long term answer at CB across from White, but they are in decent cap shape in the upcoming off season and are in a good position to have an impact draft.

Chip Kelly is great with the Xs and Os of his offensive system. He also benefited at Philly from the fact that nobody else was running his offense. The teams that played against him had no experience to help them know how to defend against it. His main negative is the fact that he has no people skills as a coach. He views players as pieces of a puzzle. He'll dump anybody or throw anyone under the bus who gets in his way. It's easier to get away with that in college because you have 100% turnover over a four year period. Players will put up with it for that long, especially if they think their college success has a chance to lead to a big payday in the NFL. The players in the NFL are going to be less tolerant of being treated like dirt.

This is why it is so hard to be an NFL GM. You draft your QB in the first round and hope for the best. You may not know whether or not he's a franchise worthy QB that first year. Jared Goff was labeled a bust at the end of the last season, but he's led the Rams on a pretty nice run this season. You start out the next season and it seems like your QB has the qualities you want, but your's still losing - there are going to be a bunch of evaluations going on from the coaches on up. The position coaches will be trying to figure out why certain players aren't producing and what off season personnel changes will need to take place. The head coach will work on those same evaluations and add the assistant coaches to the list of personnel he's got to evaluate. The GM is going to evaluate all of the above and add the head coach. The owner probably won't pay a great deal of attention to mos of the player evaluations, though if somebody sticks out like a sore thumb, he's going to notice. He will play particular attention to the head coach and GM. Certainly, at the end of your franchise QB's second season, with continued futility, heads are going to role. whose heads depends on who is doing the lopping.

Except for Tyrod and Shady, I don't think any you listed are key players. I think Tyrod has probably outlived his starting career in Buffalo and will be gone. Shady is under contract and there are only certain conditions under which he might be moved. Everybody else is a role player IMO. Some are starting, but I don't think their salaries are such that you can't move them to a backup role if you can upgrade. Wright is a fringe player who could be easily moved and hardly anybody would notice. If you can upgrade, go ahead, but if it creates too many holes to fill with upgrades, then you might end up having to keep a few. By the way, it's Lorenzo Alexander.

This is about the best that I think I can expect.

The truth is, a lot of people, media and fans alike, base their judgments about coaching decisions on hindsight. When they work, they are good decisions. When the fall flat, they are terrible decisions. When the decision is made, the coach does not have the benefit of hindsight. Now, it can be argued that the situations were very different. Specifically, Dallas had arguably the best offensive line n the NFL at the time, and Buffalo has one of the worst, especially given Cordy Glenn's health, but more particularly because of the inability of Jordan Mills and the struggles of other offensive linemen in incorporating the techniques of Juan Castillo. Still, I can appreciate that McDermott was seeing a very ineffective Tyrod Taylor, and getting frustrated with it.

I went back and watched the play right before Bosa's quote a couple of times. I am no expert on blocking technique, but it's not too hard to figure out that Mills' technique on the play was simply awful. I know enough to understand that the offensive tackle has to have quick feet to stay in front of the pass rusher. It did not seem to me like a deliberate wiff on the block. Mills extended his arms and tried to get his hands on Bosa, but could not stay in front of him as Bosa ripped right by him without even breaking stride, as if Mills were not there at all. It was downright embarrassing for Mills. And that is not to excuse Peterman, who made plenty of bad decisions on his own. Even when the other team is mounting an effective pass rush, it's on the QB to make good decisions, and Peterman made precious few of them on Sunday.

I'm not surprised, but then I would not have been terribly surprised if Peterman was named starter. Assuming the Bills are trying to win games, I think it is the right decision, which is not to say I'm expecting a win this weekend. It also does not surprise me that McDermott is taking criticism for the decision. I think it is one of those situations where he's d***** if he does and d***** if he doesn't. But then I think a lot of coaching decisions are like that unless they result in a win.

Whether starting Peterman was the right decision or the wrong one in retrospect, it had nothing to do with the Chargers and everything to do with the fact that Tyrod was largely ineffective for two straight games. Sometimes I think football teams and players like to use this sort of thing to get themselves more hyped up. Other times they're just overly sensitive.

I am as upset about the game as anyone, but I'm not into reacting emotionally. The Bills' problems right now are spread across the team, both offense and defense. There are tons of questions and not many good answers. I suspect the Bills are in for a few more tough games on the way to a losing season . . . again, but the important thing is to find some real answers. Tyrod played better today, but last week he was part of the problem. I'm not convinced he is the answer at QB. Peterman was awful, but I'm not certain at some point he can't be the answer at QB, but at this point it looks like the Bills will need to address the QB position early in the draft, which in a way is a shame because there are lots of other things they need to address, like the offensive line and the defensive front seven. I think some of the position coaches and coordinators should start to worry some about their job security. I'm not saying anybody is going to be canned today or tomorrow, but McDermott has to look at the coaching as well as the play on the field, and if the sloppy, undisciplined play and mistakes continue, the inevitable conclusion is that some of the coaches are not doing their job.

Which Tyrod are you going to get if you start him?

I don't think so. I'm not certain when trading resumes in the off season. If it is after the league year begins in March, then the Bills would have to pay Tyrod his roster bonus and hope someone bites.

If it's a spin job, then it's unlikely anything will change. Wauffle will be on borrowed time regardless of what he says. If he giving it to us straight, then we should see improvement going forward. It may not happen all at once, but hopefully enough that the defense can contribute to some wins instead of doing their best to mimic a turnstile.

Since we're past the trade deadline for this season, we're talking about an offseason trade. Buffalo would need to pay a sizable bonus to retain Tyrod. Other teams know that. For a team to consider a trade to acquire Tyrod, they would really need to covet him a lot, enough that they would not want to risk losing him to another team in the free agent signing competition, because it will surely be known that if Buffalo can't trade him, they will let him walk in free agency rather than pay a big bonus.

At Buffalo Rumblings, one writer (can't recall which one) thinks that the impetus for a change came from Rick Dennison, who felt that Tyrod's limitations made it to difficult for him to game plan the way he wanted.