jahnyc

The article is not balanced. Sullivan only notes the negatives, but they are significant and clearly stated. While I agree that Whaley's time is close to being up as GM of the Bills, I am not sure I understand why that decision was not made at the end of last season. Hiring a new GM that would be beholden to McDermott does not seem like the answer, and conducting a search for a new GM with no history with McDermott likely means problems in the future. I certainly am not comfortable giving McDermott, a first time head coach, broad powers (i.e., GM type responsibilities) in terms of roster, draft and free agents. I would think he needs to focus on coaching the team to a better record.

We had a lot of free agents and needed to spend our available funds to replace to them. Not sure there are any upgrades here other than potentially at safety. One can argue that Woods and Gilmore were overpaid in their new deals, but it also is the case that they represent a loss of quality players that will likely not be replaced adequately for the start of this season.

I think we have lost significant talent since the end of the last season, which will hurt us this season. I am hopeful about McDermott, but without upgrading the talent and filling holes, I don't see an improvement in our prospects to have a winning record and make the playoffs. Are we really going to have Mills starting at RT again this year? What do we have at WR after Watkins, who has had injury problems? We have been hurt by poor cap management, and we had a lot of free agents this offseason that could not be re-signed or adequately replaced. It is unrealistic to think with six picks in the draft that we will be significantly improved from last season in terms of talent after the losses this offseason. The Bills expected and needed major contributions from the draft class last year and it did not happen for a number of reasons, including injuries. If this season we feel that the coaching is a major improvement, that will be a real positive and give us confidence that the team will be better in the future. This is one of the things that I will be hoping for this season.

Maybe they think Gillislee is getting an offer sheet?

Is there anything wrong with getting clear upgrades to players that leave via free agency or that are marginal in terms of talent/ability? Filling holes is fine, but substituting guys on one or two year deals to play significant roles is not how you build a strong foundation, particularly if they are weaker players than the players they are replacing. Do we really have such a strong core group of players in terms of talent such that all we need are guys like Brown, Ducasse and Tolbert to be temporary plug players? Does not seem that way to me, and I am not sure I understand the overall plan for the team.

I also am fine with coaching change (and culture change), but not too happy with the start of free agency. We only have six picks in the draft as of now, and some huge holes to fill and other positions that need to be upgraded.

That is not a particularly attractive list of free agent candidates for the Bills.

You can't expect a rookie or rookies to come in and start and be effective, particularly if they are not top talents (i.e., not drafted in the first round). It is ridiculous that right now we do not have any real WRs after Sammy, who has had significant injury issues to this point. I get it that it is early in the free agency period, but the top WR free agents are gone and even some of the lesser quality WRs already have been signed, such as Ginn and Wright.

Does not make sense to me. Too much money tied up with Clay and too many other needs. Whaley supposedly was going to take Ebron is he did not trade up to get Watkins. That would have been a mistake.

This is not good news. I assume this means no Andre Smith. It will be depressing if Mills is the starter at RT again this season.

We should go for a rebuild. We are whipped puppies after 17 years of no playoffs and nothing this offseason which is inspiring any confidence that this season will be any different.

The Pats win the Super Bowl and now they have made significant improvements in the offseason while we lose more talent. What is our plan to be competitive with them and the other teams in our division?

Well, I guess Corey Graham is gone as well. I believe he has been released by the Bills.

I don't think it is nonsense. We are weaker today than we were at the end of the season because we have lost some players to free agency. We will see what the FO can do to fill the holes. I don't think it is realistic to believe that the draft will fill a substantial number of holes for the 2017 season. We tried that last year and it did not work.

The real test for the front office will be finding upgrades rather than stop gaps. Really early, but we need to find talent that will be with the team for an extended period of time and represent an upgrade over the talent being replaced.

We will miss Gilmore. Either we did not target or could not sign some of the other top free agent corners. Would not be overly concerned except that we now have too many other holes, including at WR. We were not very good last year, and we are worse in terms of talent and depth as of now. The draft cannot fill all of these holes, as we learned once again last year. Feel like we are treading water at best.

Great move by both teams. What are they going to do with Osweiler? Will they cut him or keep him on the roster to possibly compete?

I think the more important question is whether we will be stronger or weaker going into the regular season than last year. Losing Gilmore, Woods, Brown and others will hurt, and because we do not have as much cap space as we should, we likely will not be able to find free agents that are commensurate with the players lost. The release of additional players negatively impacts our secondary and overall depth, and we only have six draft picks as of now in the draft. Bad contracts for players like Clay really are hurting this team. With all of this, kind of weird that the initial focus (I know it is very early) in free agency is FB, K and a guy who played guard.

The pick at 10 will be dictated by the holes that are left after free agency. I have a feeling it will be a CB or a WR.

The terms of some of our recently agreed to contracts (or restructures) are just plain stupid (Clay, Shady and Dareus).

If the front office and the new coaching staff make a decision that TT is not the long-term (or even short-term answer), then fine. What I do not want to see is another situation where the Bills are desperate to draft a QB in a year where there are no decent QBs available where the Bills pick, so they force the pick and choose a player that should not have been drafted in that range of picks (i.e., EJ). Worse, I don't want to see the Bills waste valuable picks to trade up for a QB prospect that should not be drafted that high or who has significant question marks (or both). Whaley and Cardale feels too much like Whaley and EJ. He seems to be really stubborn about these things.

Weird choice. Not liking this as QB coach.

Who knows what would have happened. Bradley may not have wanted to come to Buffalo. Whisenhunt was going to stay in SD/LA, so I doubt he would have come here as OC if Lynn got the job.

I thought Childress would be a good hire as OC, particularly for a first time head coach. Not enthusiastic about Olson, and he is the only candidate that has an upcoming interview, at least that has been publicly disclosed.

That is crummy.