Rampant Buffalo

No. It isn't. Drama often comes in two forms. 1) An exaggeration of facts. 2) An exaggerated conclusion. It's factually accurate to say that Allen only has a limited number of years left before his window starts closing. Nextmanup's conclusion or implication is that the Bills should treat each of those years as precious. If a player would decrease the team's chances of winning a Super Bowl during that window, the Bills might want to think twice about keeping that player. Clearly, the Bills had more and bigger problems in the playoff game against the Chiefs than Tyler Bass. I don't think anyone here is trying to hang that loss on him. But it is reasonable to ask, was Bass part of the problem, or was he part of the solution? When Bass is on his game, he's one of the top kickers in the league. No doubt. I'm sure we all want him to get back to being what he once was. But how much time do we give him? If he fails to improve, there's absolutely a chance he messes with Allen's window. As a Bills fan, I'm well aware of what it's like to have a postseason game come down to the final play, and what it's like to lose that game by a single point due to a missed 47 yard field goal attempt.

On the first day of the off-season, if you'd asked me to name overpaid Bills players, Tyler Bass's name probably wouldn't have come to mind. So many other guys ahead of him on that list, that it's easy for Bass to get lost in the shuffle. (At least for me.) But now that Beane has done such a thorough job of cleansing the roster of overpaid players, Bass's unnecessarily high salary stands out more. If he goes back to kicking the way he did during the good run you mentioned, maybe one could justify a salary like that.

Your opinion of Khalil Shakir is your answer to the question, "Did the Bills do enough at WR?"

I figured I'd get some pushback on that. When I evaluate the Diggs trade, I look at three things 1. Duration: low. He was here four years. 2. Quality of regular season play: high 3. Quality of postseason play: low I get what you're saying about Diggs helping Allen become the QB he is today. But I think Allen would be fundamentally the same guy he is today anyway, so long as the Bills made a reasonable effort to set him up for success.

There are two questions here: 1) Is Beane willing to invest in the WR position? and 2) Did the Diggs trade work out? As for 1, he invested in the WR position. That includes the 1st round pick for Diggs. Diggs' original draft position is irrelevant to how much Beane invested in him. As for 2, I personally believe the Diggs trade did not work out. You look at what we used on him, including the first round pick and the salary cap space. Then you look at what we got back. In his four years here, Diggs was 4/4 in playing well for the regular season. But was 0/4 in playing well for the postseason. If your goal is to win the Super Bowl, you can't have major resources tided up in a guy like that.

In the most recent playoff loss to the Chiefs, Bills receivers had 160 yards of drops. With that in mind, the Bills should have acquired Diontae Johnson a year ago. He would have fit right in.

I have a funny feeling just about all of us are rooting for one of these guys in particular. We've been cheering him on for years, maybe without even realizing what we were doing. To which guy in particular am I referring? Hmm. I'll get back to you on that. I need time to mull this over. Meanwhile . . . go Bills!

A little after the 2:00 mark, Coleman hurdles a defender. I'm starting to have some thoughts about why Coleman is the guy Josh wanted. Hmm. Hmm.

If the Bills keep both of them, does that mean they'll be awarded a very nice-looking piece of furniture for people to sit on? 😮

A lot depends on what kind of screen you're using. If you have a hologram projector or a 3D printer, it's a lot easier for a guy to pop off the screen. If on the other hand you have a plain old two dimensional screen, any guy on your screen is pretty much stuck there.

Playing both punter and kicker could actually be that small edge he needs, to secure a roster spot. Let's say the kicker gets injured partway through the game. If you have a guy like Browning, that means you're still okay on kickoffs, and can still attempt field goals. Just as Beane values versatility among backup offensive linemen, perhaps he would value it here, as well.

Sir, you astonish me. I haven't seen 40 times discussed here at all! 😮

Andy Isabella was originally a 2nd round pick. But I haven't seen anyone say, "Wow! Look at the 2nd round pick Beane just invested in the WR position, in the form of Isabella!" It works the other way too.

From 2013 - 2017, David Gettleman was the Panthers' GM. He was also Brandon Beane's boss. In 2018, Gettleman found his way back to the NY Giants, and was GM there until 2021. Going into the 2018 draft, both the Bills and the Giants needed a quarterback. Gettleman had the 2nd overall pick. He very easily could have used that pick on Josh Allen. Instead, he took Saquon Barkley, RB. Beane then traded up to 7th overall, and drafted Josh Allen. The fact Beane and his former boss Gettleman acted so differently in the 2018 draft makes me wonder if the two had differing philosophies. While Beane had been an important part of the Panthers' front office, final decisions were made by Gettleman. As for neglect of the WR position: Beane traded away a first round pick for Diggs, and he just used the 33rd overall pick on Coleman. Am I satisfied with where we are at WR? Not as much as you might think. But that doesn't necessarily mean he's philosophically opposed to using resources at receiver. I'm curious to see what kind of investment he decides to make or not make at that position, in next year's draft.

If there's one thing I learned from this, it's to expect Beane to draft players named Allen and Coleman! 😮

The one thing this offense needs, is a slot receiver.

First, he said his name was Mr. Underhill. Then, he said his name was Casey Toohill. Finally, he said his name was Frodo Baggins.

I divide a player's performance into two categories: 1) Regular season performance, and 2) Postseason performance. For category 1), Diggs is a lot better than Reich. For category 2), Reich is miles better than Diggs. It's up to each of us how we want to weight those two categories.

Diggs was targeted 8 times in the most recent playoff loss to the Chiefs. He had 3 receptions for 21 yards. In that game, Josh Allen averaged 2.6 yards per attempt when throwing to Diggs. Trent Edwards has a career average of 6.5 yards per attempt, and Losman's average is 6.6. Diggs' 2.6 yards per attempt is the kind of number that loses you the game. It's not as though he had decent performances in other playoff games against the Chiefs or Bengals, to offset his truly horrible performance this last time around. We remember players differently, based on how they play in the biggest games of the year. Joe Montana played well in all four Super Bowl appearances, and his team won all four. With the exception of part of the Redskins game, Jim Kelly did not play well in his four Super Bowl appearances, and his team lost all four. Today, Joe Montana is remembered as a significantly better quarterback than Jim Kelly. At least Jim Kelly played well in playoff games to be able to get to the Super Bowl. Diggs didn't even do that. Diggs achieved very little in the playoffs, and virtually nothing in playoff games against the Chiefs or Bengals. He was a hero in September and October, no question. But he was also a guy who, come January, has your team saying, "Maybe next year." Unlike Diggs, Reich actually did something in the postseason. And not just any old something. The greatest comeback in NFL history. If you believe great players play their best in the biggest games, Reich was better than Diggs.

Yes it was. The Bills' playoff losses to the Chiefs were generally close games. I don't recall Diggs showing up in any of them. In this most recent defeat, Josh Allen averaged fewer yards per attempt when throwing to Diggs, than Nate Peterman averaged in his worst season in the NFL. It's difficult for a WR to get much worse than that. Comparing Diggs' postseason accomplishments to those of Reich is like comparing a five year old child's crayon drawing to a painting from a great artist.

Humility is definitely a solid virtue, and I strongly respect the fact that you've praised it here. I'd divide humility into two categories: 1) Good humility. "I could be wrong, and I need to work hard to try to be right." 2) Overdoing it humility. "It's not my place to question my betters." I also believe in accountability. To take the example you gave, consider the articles which provided inaccurate military predictions. Accountability would mean looking into previous articles written by those authors, to determine whether this inaccuracy was part of a pattern. If it was, then maybe consider having their places taken by people who have a good track record of making accurate military predictions, even if only to a small audience. The principle of accountability should apply to everyone. Professional credentials, college degrees, and so forth should not grant someone immunity from accountability. There's a difference between someone who says, "I'm right because my ego is too big for me to be wrong," versus, "I'm likely to be right, because I've used a very rigorous process." While we as fans should be humble, we shouldn't be so humble that we lose the ability to hold our front office or coaching staff accountable. If they do something incredibly stupid, such as using a soft zone/prevent defense in a playoff game against the Chiefs, they absolutely should be called out on that.

I hear what you're saying, and you have a point. Decision quality = knowledge x insight Let's say you were to bring Leonardo da Vinci back to life, and you started asking him questions about how to build a successful online business. Da Vinci was an extremely intelligent and insightful individual--one of the most insightful who ever lived. But he had no knowledge about the Internet. Therefore he's unlikely to help you much, because both insight and knowledge have to be there. Subject matter experts are generally in the opposite position. They have plenty of relevant knowledge. When they make a mistake, it's usually because of a lack of insight. If an expert is making a mistake due to lack of insight, that mistake can often be seen by someone who combines a basic level of knowledge with good insight. Suppose the vast majority of fans strongly oppose the use of the 8th overall pick on Donte Whitner. But that's the pick that's made anyway. When Whitner subsequently falls very short of his draft position, this gets classified as an avoidable error. So then you ask: "What went wrong to create that avoidable error, and what can we do differently in the future to avoid having that happen again?" In the case of Whitner, Levy and Jauron believed their first two picks needed to be safety and DL, but not necessarily in that order. That team had plenty of needs, and lacked starter caliber players at many positions. There are two failures to learn from here: the over-estimation of Donte Whitner's value as a player, as well as their big picture approach to drafting strategy. The goal should be to rigorously learn from both those failures, to get better at this in the future.

Professionals, smart, and committed? I can give you another group of people who meet that description. Medical professionals. Below is a quote from Johns Hopkins Medicine: That's just the diagnostic errors which result in death or permanent disability. The total number of medical errors is of course much higher. If highly trained, rigorously selected medical professionals can make errors at that rate, it is not necessarily the case that a Tom Donahoe, Russ Brandon, or a Doug Whaley "knows better" than any of the fans. Avoidable errors do happen in NFL front offices, just as they happen in medicine. I'd take Brandon Beane over any of our playoff drought GMs, but even he had an avoidable error (2nd round pick on Boogie Basham). I firmly believe there's room for NFL front offices to get better at this. If a particular NFL front office figures out how, it could give itself a competitive advantage over other teams.

Assuming all this is correct, you're making me feel a bit frustrated. Ladd McConkey would have been a great addition as a Z receiver, and he was available at 33. But I'm not sure how the Bills could have added both McConkey and Coleman. Assuming the Bills don't do anything big between now and the trade deadline, it sounds like our biggest needs heading into next draft are likely to be a Z receiver, safety, DL, and, possibly, interior OL.

I'd like to give kudos to Rashee Rice. He's doing an outstanding job of filling Tyreek Hill's shoes. 👍