PBF81

Our playoff wins haven't depended upon Diggs. They've depended upon playing QBs like Skylar Thompson, Mason Rudolph, Mac Jones, a 39-year old Rivers in his last game ever, and in the case of the Ravens, a defense that had to defend a team who's top WR was Marquise Brown and whose leading rusher was their QB, otherwise JK Dobbins. Otherwise we can't win any playoff games. Pretty much agree with you there. Let's also contrast Caserio with Beane.

Insofar as that criticism goes, Beane knew the risks as such when he traded for Diggs to begin with. So this notion that this scenario has (more or less) now played out twice, if anything should add criticism to our originally having traded for him. Again, not my criticism, but for those taking that angle. My thing is that we had to pay for Diggs because Beane and his staff, A, never even tried to draft a WR on days 1 or 2 in 6 drafts now, and B, with their later picks haven't been able to do much for WR otherwise, besides Shakir, who's good but hardly great. We'll see, there are a lot of roster & cap issues right now. The one thing that's indisputable is that it's now fully McBeane's mess for them to clean up and deal with. At this point, and until we see our Draft in just over three weeks, I wouldn't bet that we win the division. I hope we do, think that we likely will, but I wouldn't put any money on it.

The point is that Stroud already has more talent at WR around him than Allen's ever had. Tank Dell had as good a rookie season as Samuel's ever had, slightly better. Nico Collins is likely to be among the league's best next season. Throw in Diggs, and when at 31 Robert Woods is your 4/5, you're lookin' pretty good. Stroud was incredibly impressive this past season. It's early, and it's Ryan's second season as a HC, but it shouldn't be unrealistic to consider that Houston dominates that division for the foreseeable future. And if all that Ryan does with that troop is see early exits from the playoffs for four or five seasons, I don't expect that he'll be kept on.

The point is that it's a season gone by. Same as if I offered you a free meal somewhere next year. It doesn't help you out now/this year. Beane keeps kicking the can down the road on certain things, but one thing he's never done is devoted even one offseaon, much less more, much less a string of them, into building around the one thing/player upon which our destiny hinges.

Which as they say, translates to a 3rd this year.

Yeah, it's great, isn't it. Our Center and therefore C/QB tandem chemistry is new. We have a couple of #2/3 WRs as our starters alongside a red-shirt rookie, the under/mis-utilized Kincaid, another TE that's become a cap albatross immediately after an extension, and a two-down RB. I know I'm optimisitic. But as you said, at least there's no one to challenge Allen's captain status, so I guess that's a good thing.

Except that I'm talking about what they've done on O. What they've done on D, I'm not even aware of since it's immaterial to my point. It's about how after Stroud's monumental record-setting rookie season, they're dumpe resources into building around him. We've never done that with Allen, ever, in any of Beane's 6 prior drafts/offseasons. The emphasis has always been on the D. It's a safe bet that's coming from McD, not Beane.

So far Beane's two biggest moves money wise in free-agency have both proven to be major long-term issues. Both would have been unnecessary if he and his staff could draft a decent WR and edge-rusher. Which of our players besides Allen has even approached stepping up consistently come playoff time?

Well, the original implication is that Houston's also building around Stroud, whereas we got Allen, made building around Allen secondary to McD building out his pet D to #1/2/4 standards. That would all be fine and dandy if the D didn't play like the 25th ranked D come playoff time, and Allen had some real help without spending $96 for four, ... rather three years, for a WR. We've taken a nearly completely opposite approach. We'll see what happens, but also paramount to my point is that the outcome of the @ Houston game will either validate or invalidate our and conversely their approach, generally speaking.

Maybe, but a loss will be inexcusable and will be a referendum on managerial MOs.

You've lost me. What did Beane say about who is paying franchise money? I don't chase Beane around in the media for quotes.

So what, the Bills @ Houston game has still taken on a new significance. Doesn't matter who we sign. Not sure the correlation here. There is none. If you want to discuss what more he's gonna do, what, sign another WR for $96M since this deal worked out so well for us? We can't afford to trade the two decent picks we have on days 1 & 2 and even early on day 3 for one WR that may not even work out. He can talk all he wants, but for his team to be in the position it's presently in shouldn't be an accolade. Our current starting WRs are Samuel, Shakir, and Shorter. Shorter's never played an NFL game. Between Shakir and Samuel their best seasons to date are 690/4 and 851/3. We're getting slammed in the national sports media with many saying that we have no proven WRs. If I were Beane I wouldn't be patting myself on the back after getting a handful of beans for Diggs.

About what? Who cares what Beane said. Look at the talent Houston has and look at our talent, then ask yourself which is better. What Beane says has nothing to do with anything related to our brief discussion here.

Right, and look at what Stroud has to work with now contrasted with what Allen has to work with. There's zero comparison.

What performance parallels? 40-time, ht. wt. have nothing to do with performance. There's gotta be hundreds of WRs over the past decade that had similar 40-time/ht./wt. that sucked as WRs in the NFL. Better parallels would be collegiate production (for Shakir) where there's no parallel or NFL production where there's zero parallel. Curious why you think that Shakir can now mirror Diggs' performance to date? Diggs Trade Aftermath ... It certainly puts the Bills @ Houston game on the calendar. Their offense should easily be better than ours. If we lose that game, ... buckle up. LOL

I gotta tell ya, I've been preaching that Diggs hasn't been that in the playoffs, along with any other WRs not named Davis, and got nearly universal heat for it. Now it's the narrative du jour. LOL

The Bills @ Houston game this season just got that much more interesting.

The only place anywhere that's saying that we'll be better offensively after this trade is a subset of fans here. Nowhere else does anyone think that at face-value right now at this point in time are we improved, many think we're notably worse. Out of about ten, I haven't seen one "grade" that's more positive than negative regarding this trade. As for me, I'm simply envious of what the Texans are doing to support Stroud, after one season, contrasted to how little we've done for Allen after 7 seasons.

Especially if they're looking at that like that while the market is high. It's understandable that they'll sell out while Allen's here, but for drought era performance it's questionable. The whole Diggs thing likely hasn't helped either. Not saying it's hurt, but thinking that it's helped isn't wise.

We absolutely need to focus on offense until we have the juggernaut that we should have with Allen at QB. Having said that, just use the picks we have. Beane's got us in enough of a hole already, and as others have said, the difference between a WR taken before 28th and at 28th, other than for Harrison who we have zero chance of landing under any circumstances, could very well be negative, but marginal otherwise if the team does it's homework. Just not another second-tier prospect please. Time to shift the focus from McD's pet project D to the O.

It is a fact, I've been saying that for two years now. It's also not relevant to the points originally discussed.

Right, who isn't included in why we haven't won in the playoffs? Someone with a suit of teflon. And naturally, it has nothing to do with him despite the fact that in the playoffs the past three seasons we've averaged 31 PPG, more than just about every other team, and have scored 31+ in four of those six.

LOL, now the primary reason why we haven't done better in the playoffs is Diggs' fault. LMAO I must've missed the explanation of why they lied to us for the past year.

Diggs not in the slot half the time is a force. Diggs in the slot is like using Derrick henry as a blocking FB.