PBF81

Good info, thanks for posting all that. I don't have that perspective. One respectful suggestion though, more paragraphs. Easier readability. 🙂 Love UB football though even tho I no longer live in the region. It could be so much more.

Well, kudos to them for adjusting like that We're still awaiting those types of adjustments in "The Process."

That's fair, and if in fact he were trying to sell the team, he's first have to find such a buyer. Remember, if we didn't already have a team, Buffalo wouldn't make the short list for expansion or a move. As you imply above, all most people care about is money first and foremost. That slide that the Pegula's put up at whichever organizational meeting they had, did not indicate otherwise. I think that finding a buyer for an eager seller without a place to play may be a bit of a tough sell. We'll see, let's hope they break ground in June after all this nonsense and then this all amounts to nothing but worthless back and forth. 🙂 Not gonna say that it's not concerning though.

And where is he now? His stone silence in all of this is concerning. Here's what he did say, he did say that he was not extending the current lease at Rich until a formal agreement was signed for a new stadium. Here's the rub, all of the articles in the meantime have plainly stated that the lease extensions would be a series of 1-year extensions. So sign one already for just one year. How long can they push this without a lease going into the fall? Have they worked it out behind the scenes that on such and such a date one will be signed regardless? Who knows. I'm not saying that it's not getting done, but there sure is a lot of weird stuff going on a few months before training camps begin, and what, about 4 months before preseason games begin. You know how many times we've heard "next 30 days" about finalizing things. We were told that this was "Iron-clad" a year ago, a year, and they're still bickering with each other now over who's fault that it is that it hasn't been done already. Then they tell us that there's a meeting for "final approval" but then after the meeting they say that it still has to go through other approvals. Then it wasn't final, was it. LOL BTW, not arguing with you, just providing info that you claim didn't exist. You say "his beloved Sabres," but here's the rub, Kim meant the world to him. Terry's no spring chicken, that's why he was happy to have her run the team. But that's not possible anymore. At the end of the day neither you, I, nor anyone else but him knows what he's thinking. He wouldn't be the first person in history to cash it all in over a spouse's condition. Again, not arguing, I myself and somewhere between perplexed and concerned about the entire thing. It's taken way longer than they said. Not sure you remember, but originally they said that they wanted to break ground during this past season. Then it was March, now it's June. We're pushing a year here.

Here's an article about three years ago, referencing the aforementioned. The exact quote was somewhere, but if you're handy with Google I'm sure you can fid it if you really want to. Also, these are statements based upon people that met with the Pegulas for varying reasons. Read between the lines. It's not like they're going to come right out and say, either the state and county pony up or we're moving the team elsewhere. How stupid would that be on their part. If you don't like this source there were dozens of others, probably the BN too. https://bleacherreport.com/articles/2887710-report-bills-owner-kim-pegula-talked-budget-cuts-sought-to-maintain-lifestyle Here's one of her exact quotes from a BN piece; “I don’t even know if we can get there,” the team’s co-owner told The Buffalo News while attending the NFL spring meeting. “I know fans in Buffalo don’t want higher ticket prices, they don’t want PSLs (personal seat licenses). The state doesn’t want to give you any money, the city doesn’t ... We don’t have a billion-and-a-half dollars sitting around. We used it to buy the team.” That's from this piece three years ago; https://buffalonews.com/sports/bills/kim-pegula-on-new-bills-stadium-i-dont-even-know-if-we-can-get-there/article_c577fdb3-66dc-51ae-adee-eb4031f9de0f.html And here's an interesting piece that doesn't exactly paint the Pegulas out to be George Bailey; https://theathletic.com/1758235/2020/04/20/as-pegulas-face-business-challenges-employees-describe-a-toxic-culture-at-pse/ Here's a page from their presentation that clearly depicts the Bills as being subservient to the things above it. Do with it as you like, not trying to stir up trouble, but any notions that the Pegulas would bend over backwards to keep this team in Buffalo were outdated at least three years ago. It's beyond clear that their own financial (and other) interests in the matter supercede those of the Bills, their fans, the state, or county.

Well, for starters, Kim is on record as stating that they couldn't afford a stadium because they had a lifestyle to maintain. That was in fact said by her. It was nested in an article(s) way back at the onset of this. It may have been only one, I don't know, but just like 30 articles all stating the same thing go up after we sign a player, so too it got around. They've made it clear that it was a passive threat.

Not quite sure what you're trying to say. Right now we're short a bunch of impact players too get us to a Championship. I hear ya, but right now that's the position that stands to make the biggest leap from what we currently have to what an above average player at the position would bring.

Agree with this, although I'll wait to see what the Draft brings, but Beane will have to pull an A+ Draft out of his ass if he's going to prevent that slide back to uncompetitive, or for sure an inability to advance significantly in the playoffs. As I've said several times, if any one of the following things happens this season, I don't see McD or Beane lasting more than another season or two: A. We do not win the Dividion B. We win the division but lose in the WC or D round again, particularly if it's another ass-kicking against KC or Cinci. C. We go to the AFC CG but get our asses handed to us. White sucked after his injury, he wasn't even average much less All-Pro. What he did two or more seasons ago doesn't matter today. Hopefully he'll rebound to his former self this season, he's owed that, but if not, then they have to start thinking alternately. He gets paid way too much to be a role-playing DB or backup. Milano's the only player we had that did anything in the playoffs besides Edmunds, who's not here anymore. Beane's drafted players have never done anything in the playoffs other than a few spot performances. Entirely undependable as such.

As I said, it depends upon how one defines "hole." So yeah, it makes sense from the perspective that you imply, that if you have a warm body in there there's no "hol" per se, but I would define hole, particularly for us, as do we have above-average play in a particular spot. Because our entire OL besides Dawkins now is average on a good day, mediocre the rest of the time. So for me that would indicate some holes. Sure, Brown may improve, but I'd give him this season. Morse is getting older and has had his bell run 6 times now, he's flirting with following in Seau's footsteps, and he wasn't as good as he's been this past season either. But yeah, I guess if you mean that there's someone on the roster capable of playing a position there's no hole, sure, I wouldn't disagree. As to upgrades, it's relative. As I'd mentioned, besides Milano and Poyer, we have almost no if any defensive players that were worth a crap in the playoffs. Offensively our entire OL got manhandled at times, and we have no RB to power us to assist Allen in controlling the game. Could be coaching, but that's another topic. And everyone here claims that Davis isn't good enough to be a WR2, which means we don't have one then. If we want to be competitive in the playoffs, IMO we have more than few spots to upgrade. In fact, I'm looking now at the OLs and DLs of Miami, NE, and the Jets. My initial thought was that I'd trade wholesale for any of them on any of the three teams. I'm looking to see whether that thought is justified. I would trade our DL for the Jets' DL in a NY second though. I don't think that any of our AFCE competitors have worse lines than we do. I have to look, but NE's DL may be about the same, but I don't think it's worse, and it's the worst it's been in NE perhaps on BB's watch. Gotta compare to the AFCE first, that's nearly a third of our games. Right now our lines aren't competitive with those of KC and Cinci, how that's looked at and viewed may be more an issue of semantics, but something's gotta be done to correct that or there will be no Championship for us in the foreseeable future.

Not talking about depth. I like Davis and think he'll be fine, but the primary opinion here is that we need a WR2. That's one hole. Unless we are good with mediocre to average performance along the DL, I'd strongly suggest we have at least one "hole" there too. When absolutely none of your DL-men step up even part-time in the playoffs, I'd say that there are holes. Like I said, unless Elam develops or White rebounds back from his injury rehab, we have one, possibly two holes there too. White was awful when he played. OL, I'd say we have holes, again, unless mediocre is fine. RB, who's starting? What, Cook, who's never had a full-time number of carries here or in college? That's a hole to me. They can preach how great he'll be all they want, but until it happens. Right now all we've gotten is mostly preaching. To say that LB is our only hole, .... seriously?

We should have drafted Nakobe Dean last year instead of Cook, or traded up into the early 3rd to get him. But if Campbell's that good, then why not take him with our 27th. Fills an enormous hole.

Well, I suppose that depends upon how one defines "hole." Seems to me that we have quite a few needs. Our OL needs upgrading. Right now we have no proven ball-carrier that's ever had more than 90 carries/season if Singletary leaves. The most that Cook had in college is 113. Hines has never been an NFL rusher other than role-play. We need a WR. An upgrade at TE isn't unreasonable. At present we have one LB on the entire roster that's proven to be starting caliber, so that's two holes unless we continue with only 2 LBs, which is risky if one gets hurt. Our DL can use a decent pass-rusher and some impact players. There currently isn't a single DL draft pick by Beane that has done anything even worth mentioning in the playoffs. That's a "hole" from where I sit. And unless White can become something close to what he was at CB, or Elam really steps up, we can certainly use a decent CB. It's great that we got Poyer back, but what about Hyde, what's his status going to be? He going to be 100%? Hamlin's gone, Marlowe, meh. Just sayin' ...

This is a good exercise to do, I'd run it if I thought it would generate fruitful discussion here, but I don't think it would. Write down the secondary of every team since 2000, the first year we missed the playoffs during our drought. Do the same for LBs, RBs, WRs, DBs, OL & DL. Then compare them. I think you'd be quite surprised how what we have today generally does not match up as well, again, generally. I'll do it if you want to discuss. I just don't want to spend the time and get slammed about Beane by everyone out of the gate. But think about it, if that's true, why are we so good, at least during the regular season? How good would we have been had we had the QBs that those coaches had? Conversely, how good would their teams have been with Allen in them?

OK, then default to my comments about the team under Williams & Gailey, and frankly many others for certain units of the team. Don't leapfrog them.

Or the DL and Front 7. Smith, Hanson, Wright, Talley, Biscuit. That's much of my point here, almost all of our units were better back then. Without any hesitation whatsoever, I'd swap out our OL, RBs, DL, LBs, even WRs. DBs are probably a wash as is TE. Special teams were great back then, we don't have a Tasker on the team now. There are some other years since then that overall had better units too, OLs with Glenn, Wood, Levitre, I'd trade in a moment. Some of our D backfields were better as a unit as well. Same for our LBs, RBs for sure, and even WRs at times. Gailey and Williams probably had the best, but they didn't have Allen. That's what Allen means to this team. Put him on some of those overall better teams back then and IMO we wouldn't be talking about winning our first Championship anymore. Go BILLS!!!

Here's my issue with film, highlights, etc. They're just that, HIGHlights. To take a handful of plays out of the performance dossier of a player without looking at the particulars leads teams down the wrong path. It's easy to notice that some of these highlight videos of players on big school teams are often against schools in smaller divisions or even the FCS, the old D-IA. As a scout, I'd be placing my biggest emphasis on how players did against their counterparts in college that will be playing in the NFL. If we had done that with a bunch of our draftees over the years, Beane not excluded, I'm not sure we'd have drafted them as high or at all. Zay Jones was just one of them. It's important to look at the circumstances too. It reminds me of an SCTV skit that John Candy did years ago where he's playing hockey on some Canadian lake against a bunch of kids, knocking them all around and dominating. LOL

Great response! Thanks!! Not sure why Allen misses those options, last year he was much better at it. I'd like to see Allen play when he's A, got a decent OL that he finally develops some chemistry with, much like Kelly had with Ballard, Ritcher, Hull, and Wolford; B, with some semblance of a rushing game that something other than DFL without Allen's carries; C, better play-calling; and D, without a season full of dropped passes. IMO Allen's situation isnt' fair to Allen and it's prevented him from being able to focus on what other QBs behind good OLs and with some kind of rushing game can focus on. Here's my thing about Hines, doubling last season's receiving input, where he excels as a RB, he had 10 catches, about a fifth of what he had at Indy in five seasons, with a different QB each and every season he was there. Five different QBs in five seasons. So why the dramatic dropoff here after Beane's promises of the opposite. (rhetorical) As to the performance of the team, D #1/#2, etc., the problem is that they play the complete opposite in the playoffs, particularly against KC and now Cinci where they seem to all but literally take a vacation. Our problem hasn't been the regular season, it's been the playoffs. None of Beane's 1st or 2nd round picks have stepped up to even approach impact play in the playoffs with anything even approaching regularity. Who's to blame? I'd say it was him, but apparently I don't know what I'm talking about, so I'm told. 😁

LOL, that's truly hilarious. I had no idea. What's going to be even more hilarious is all of the posters here that defend him now that want to burn down OBD, the stadium, cancel the new stadium, and eradicate Bills history from their memories, if we don't win the division and either don't make the playoffs or get ousted again in the D or WC rounds. Just duck if that happens. I hope we win the Super Bowl, but should we not, I'll be among the rational ones. LOL Go BILLS!!!

I'd love to be able to do that, I try. Just not seeing it here. Then again I didn't see it with Zay Jones either who made his reputation in college in garbage time in 5 WR sets. My having pointed that out didn't go over well either. LOL If you do, great. Time will tell. Nothing that you or I or anyone else bickers about makes any iota of a difference whatsoever. I'd be careful citing Beane's record tho, he just released a very good WR that had a far better track record at a huge PAC-10 school. I can pretty much guarantee that Beane and his braintrust have pored over film of that guy, done the pros & cons analysis, looked at the upside there too. Clearly they whiffed. He's also whiffed on quite a few free agents. We could go through them. Point being, it's a double-edged sword. We'll see what happens. I can see him contributing. Do I envision him being a difference-maker in any way, shape, or form? No. Could I be wrong? Sure, of course. Could we win the Super Bowl? Sure, of course. Maybe Harty pleasantly surprises me and posts 1,000 yards and 10 TDs and brings us some much needed offensive performance against Cinci and KC in the playoffs, and then our Super Bowl opponent. I certainly hope so. But would I bet on it, not a chance. There's no sense in bickering and arguing over who killed who. This is supposed to be a happy occasion! 😁

LOL, let's see how he stands after this season.

The rest will figure it out during the season. LOL

Did you ask the people stating that he was a slot WR multiple times in this thread the same question? Ask them, not me. I went by what they said. Harty hasn't even taken my notice over the past four seasons, for any reason whatsoever. But again, now Harty's a deep WR? Seriously? That money for that? Whatever. Beane continues to dig his own grave here.

LOL, Beane doesn't need an assist from me. Just sayin'. He's doin' fine all by himself. If things don't change/improve rapidly, watching the comments here at the end of or even during the season will be funny. Keep in mind, mine won't change much, but the swing by those insisting that he's doing great are going to be the most hilarious as they typically are.

Well, per your own words. Zay Jones tore up the FCS. Again, it's not the SEC. BTW, I love watching football in some of those minor conferences, FWIW. I wish we had one closer to where I lived.

Ahhh, what do they know! LOL