jahnyc

I don't think what SP has posted is all that surprising or even particularly new. A lot of what SP is saying seems consistent with other information, signals and action from the front office: 1. Preston Brown will be a free agent and seems like the Bills want a middle linebacker in the mold of Luke Kuechly. I would not be shocked if the Bills traded up if they thought they could get Roquan Smith (Georgia MLB). L. Alexander is old (still solid) and Milano may be a bit small to be an every down player. Would not be surprising if the Bills did end up with three new starters for next season via free agency and the draft. 2. Bills need some more talent/depth at DT, particularly if KW retires. Would expect them to use one of the first round picks on a DT if picks are not traded. 3. If it is true that the Bills asked KW to take a pay cut for this past season, would be not be shocking if they did not offer him much to come back for next season. 4. TT does not seem to be in their plans. The Bills will need a veteran QB as a starter or back-up. 5. There were many reports that the Bills were actively shopping Glenn before the trading deadline, including having a potential deal with Seattle. If true, then it would be no surprise if he is not on the roster to start next season. 6. There have been other accounts/sources that have noted that the Bills really like Darnold. Same with Peterman, including that the Bills tried to replace Taylor with Peterman in season.

A lot of talent has left this team over the last few year. Gilmore, Darby, Dareus (if his head is in it), Bradham and Poz are all quality defensive players. I wish things could have worked out differently and we could have figured out how to make it work with some of these players. It is going to take some time to replenish the talent on the roster. Another strong draft will help, unless we trade away a bunch of picks to move up for a QB or LB. I think the Bills can learn from the Sabres. Use the picks and don't trade them.

What happened with Chud?

Isn't DT one of the biggest needs, maybe only after QB, whether or not Kyle retires?

Pretty amazing how the unit was rebuilt in one offseason to even be competitive after losing Gilmore, Darby, Williams, Robey-Coleman and Graham.

I think the real question is whether he would have helped the Bills this year if he had not been traded. Given that our WR corp was poor this year and Sammy seemed to be healthy during this year, the answer probably is yes. With TT's limitation as a passer, I think the trade resulted overall in a relatively small benefit to the Bills when considered in light of getting a second round pick in the draft for him (unfortunately a late second round pick) versus a third round pick if he had left in free agency in 2018. I don't think he is NE type player. They seem to value players who can pick up the complexities of their schemes and plays. I don't think Sammy is that guy.

I would be surprised if Cleveland took Rosen at this point given his public statements. If Cleveland take Darnold instead and Rosen was available, would Rosen want to play in Buffalo?

As is usual, I assume it will come down to whether McDermott/Beane can find and develop a QB. The Texans' offense looked great with Watson and terrible with the other QBs that have started for them this year. Denver still has a strong defense, but they are on the field too much this year (and short fields because of turnovers and the failure of the offense to even generate yards), and now they look pedestrian. Green Bay was barely able to tread water without Rogers. The Rams have become a strong team because of the development of Goff. Same with Philly with Wentz (until his injury). It really is about the QB.

Some quick thoughts: 1. It was good to hear Tony Romo talk about how well coached the Bills are and how McDermott formulated a strong defensive plan against Brady, requiring Brady to go through his progressions to find an open receiver. I really don't think the was just saying this, and I have been impressed with Romo's insights during the season. 2. Romo pointed out the lack of a pass rush and how much more effective the defensive game plan would have been with one. I expect that we will use one of our first round picks on a DT or a DE, assuming we do not trade our picks to move up for a QB. Specifically, I could see the Bills drafting a pass rushing DE with their first pick in the draft. 3. Yes, this team may be well coached, but the Bills have no depth and need to re-stock the overall talent after losing a lot of players in the offseason (and even during the season with the trade of Dareus). We can have our disagreements about whether certain players that are no longer with the team would have been been significant contributors this season, but we lost, among others, Woods, Watkins, Gillislee, Dareus, Gilmore, Robey, Darby, Goodwin, Zack Brown. This is a lot of talent. Maybe there were not a fit for what McDermott and Bean want to do, but the team lacks overall talent. Amazing to me that we could finish 9-7 if we defeat the Dolphins with the current roster. 4. The Bills need a quality starting QB badly. I like Taylor, but we need to be much more effective with our passing offense to be able to compete with the top teams, and Taylor will never develop into the type of QB that will get us there. 5. Even though we need a QB, we also need our top four picks next year to re-stock our talent. For this reason, I hope we go after Cousins. He has had a solid year with a team lacking a top RB or WR. I think he would do well in Buffalo, although I doubt he would sign here as a FA. 6. Needs for next year will include DL, LB, CB, OT, OG, RB and WR. That is a lot. I believe P. Brown and Gaines are FAs. 7. I was impressed how Benjamin gutted it out today. I look forward to him being healthy next year and excited to see him play when he is healthy. He is a much better value than Watkins would have been if we had not traded Watkins and exercised his fifth year option. I think Benjamin will be well worth the third round pick we used to trade for him. 8. I hope McDermott will be a bit less conservative next year with his 4th and short yardage calls. 9. Will be interesting to see if any of our coaches are fired/replaced this offseason. 10. Really need a strong draft to keep the momentum going.

Watching the Sabres over the last couple of years, I have wondered if the stripping of talent through the tank and not having a pipeline of young talent meant that it would take years to replenish the talent and become competitive to make the playoffs, which seems to be the case now. I am wondering if a similar problem has been created by the Bills. Since last season, the Bills have lost (through a combination of free agency, trades and releases), among others, Watkins, Woods, Goodwin, Gillislee, Zach Brown, Dareus, Gilmore, Darby, Nickell Robey, Aaron Williams, Corey Graham, and Jonathan Williams. Many of these players were starting caliber players. I know that some of these players were free agents and we did not have the cap space to retain them. I also understand that football is different than hockey, and teams can improve significantly from year to year, but are we starting a new rebuild from a very low base of overall talent? I also know that we have a lot of picks in the next draft, but if we trade up to draft a QB, we may not have those picks available. At a minimum, we will need a significant infusion of talent. I hope through the draft and free agency we will be able to fill our holes for both starting players and depth players, but my concern is that this will take too much time because of the realities of from where we are starting this process.

I used to find these types of postings kind of funny, but on some level, I do understand this sentiment. It would be easier to root for a different team that wins on a regular basis and has a functioning overall football operation. I had hoped that when Pegula bought the team, he would retain a football czar for a fresh start. It did not happen, and we are continuing to pay for it. I have no idea how things will work out with McDermott and Beane. We will need to give it time, but it is discouraging to have lost so much young talent in such a short period of time through trades, cuts and free agency losses. It has put us further away from having a competitive football team. Football teams can turn it around quickly in the NFL, and we have to hope we will draft well and pick up a bunch of free agents in the offseason. I have no hopes for the remainder of this season and our playoff drought is ridiculous. It has to get better as some point, and we if we can hold on to our draft picks in the next draft, that would help with so many holes to fill.

Not optimistic for the rest of the season, but Rivers is in concussion protocol, so if he is not available to play on Sunday, maybe our chances to win improve.

That was one of the worst performances by the Bills that I can recall. Not sure I have seen a game where the RBs for the opposing team were able to pick up significant yards on almost every carry. Would have thought adjustments would have been made to stop the run, but maybe we just don't have the personnel to be able to do that. I think we are too small at DT. Maybe Marcell would have helped.

The Bills are playing like a well coached and prepared team, which is an important change. Unfortunately, the team lacks overall talent.

I know that Jones is a rookie, but he looks awful. I hope he can/will improve, but he should not be on the field.

The defense has looked strong, but the Jets are poor offensively and Newton looked bad last week (plus McDermott knows the Panthers strengths and weaknesses on offense). I want to see how the defense performs as the season progresses, particularly when we play teams like the Pats and the Dolphins. I do think the defense will continue to perform better than last year, but I will be a bit surprised if it is a top 10 defense at season end. I agree with all of the posts about how boring this team is to watch.

I have never seen a team purge so many young players in one off season after a new regime is put into place. Just really weird and concerning.

If we are not drafting high enough next year and we want one of the top QBs, we likely will be trading away some of these draft picks that we have accumulated to move up in the draft, which would not be a good thing considering the number of holes in our roster that have been created. Interesting that our four top CBs from last season are all gone (including the two starting CBs). I really hope that we are not going to use some of our early draft picks on corners. That would be depressing. I get the Watkins trade. The others, not so sure. Seemed like they liked Seymour from the comments McD made early in training camp. Surprised to see him traded given the lack of depth and talent at the position for the Bills.

I thought I understood that Dennison was changing our blocking scheme to a zone running scheme from a power running scheme. Maybe our o-line is not "built" for this kind of a scheme? If this is the case, and we can't run the ball effectively, then our offense is probably going to take a big step backward.

A couple of quick thoughts: 1. Not unusual to have player turnover with a new GM, head coach and coaching staff, but it does seem unusual that the Bills have parted ways with a number of younger players. Gilmore, Gillislee, Darby, Woods, Goodwin (yes, I know he has been injured a lot) and Watkins (same) are all in their prime or approaching their prime. If you add Hogan to this list, this would not seem to be a bad core to start building with. Still surprised that the Bills did not re-sign Gillislee, even with Williams as a back-up running back. I think next year we will see some veteran players released because their bad contracts made it prohibitively expensive to cut them this year (Clay and potentially Dareus). 2. Seems that the defense will potentially improve this year, but the offense will take a step back. I know that many posters did not like the Roman offensive system, but it was at least effective at times. Way too early to be making these kind of judgments (it is only preseason), but I am concerned that the new scheme under Dennison will either take time to fully implement or will prove to be ill-suited to our offensive personnel. 3. I am worried about the o-line. Was Kromer a great coach? Was it the scheme that hid the weaknesses of this group? We will find out when the regular season begins, but the right side of the o-line is scaring me. 4. With a new regime comes a new coaching staff, and it always seems there are improvements and disappointments with our positional coaches. I think we will miss some of our old coaches (i.e., Kromer) and it never seems that we can make improvements in the staff across the board from the prior staff. We would have a good staff if we could take the best coaches from the prior regimes and assemble them in to one staff. 5. I don't think we will have the worst record in the NFL this season, but we may take a step back from the mediocre records of the last number of years. The Jets are clearly worse than the Bills, and probably Cleveland and other teams. I assume we will be drafting a QB in the first round next year, so I hope we will be able to use the draft picks that we have accumulated on additional players other than trading them all to move up and pick a QB. We will need these draft picks with all of the current roster turnover and likely future roster turnover.

If we trade McCoy (which I doubt), not matching the offer for Gillislee will look incredibly foolish in hind sight.

It is a fresh start and we need to give them a chance. We will not agree with every decision, and I do find it a bit odd to jettison young talent in a rebuild, but they are different people with different views/backgrounds as compared to Levy/Jauron.

Change was clearly needed, but I am not sure I have seen a team jettison (or allow to leave) primarily young, talented players in an effort to rebuild a team (Darby, Sammy, Gilmore, Gillislee and CK). Other than CK, these are all good to very good young players. Not sure how I feel about stripping a team of current talent in this manner. I understand that it is a new regime and that we were hamstrung in terms of cap space from the prior regime, but I worry that this rebuilding effort will take longer now than maybe was necessary. The Sabres got rid of all of their assets with very little talent in the pipeline, and they are continuing to struggle even with a number of top draft picks. This is what worries me, even with a bunch of high draft picks in 2018.

I think the Bills have backed themselves in a bit of a corner here because they did not pick up his option. This means if Sammy has a great season, we will need to franchise him since his contract will be up, which will be very expensive generally and in terms of cap space. Add the uncertainty of how Sammy feels about not having his option exercised (or playing in Buffalo) and you may have situation where he will not want to sign a long-term deal with the Bills. There are a lot of unknowns with Sammy, including his health for this season and after. I do not know if it is the right move, but you certainly can make the argument that getting a first round pick for Sammy would be appropriate value for Sammy under the current circumstances.

Not liking some of the local press suggesting that Eichel is immature and a problem. I hope that this is not true, but if it is, it could be that Murray knew this would be the case when the Sabres lost out on the opportunity to draft McDavid (and explains why he was so upset at the time).