dave mcbride

I'm talking specifically about the teams I'm a fan of. The Bills are a mess, and have been since Ralph decided that he didn't want to pay Butler the going rate before the 2000 season.

Yes, this is the real issue behind everything.

Me too. I think you are deluded, my friend. He's going to want out, and the Bills aren't going to want a player who absolutely doesn't want to be here. He'd be foolish not to be very protective of his health this season too.

I agree.

This regime didn't surrender that for him; the old regime did. That's not McDermott's problem, and it's a sunk cost anyway. I think Watkins wants out (why wouldn't he want out given the circumstances???), and I think McDermott wants guys who are "all in." I also think that the foot is a real wildcard here. In any event, I don't expect the Bills to pony up $17 million for a one-year deal with a WR. I like Watkins a ton, so I hope I'm wrong. But we've been down this road before.

If the Bills pay it. I strongly doubt that they will.

Me too.

Interesting stuff. My guess is that Watkins wants to get the hell out of Buffalo ASAFP. This place has been chaos central ever since he arrived here. And I won't be surprised if he plays in protective mode this season given looming free agency and his injury history. He's not gonna take one for the team and play while hurt. And who can blame him? The Bills totally effed up his injury situation last season.

yeah, but you get my point. Since Parcells took over in 2003, they have had three losing seasons, three .500 seasons, and eight winning seasons (and two 13-win seasons).

Belichick is occasionally great and amazingly discursive in some interviews. It depends on the questions presented to him.

To repeat, I was not a Yankees fan then. I'm talking about *teams I actually rooted for*. The old Yankees weren't my problem. The Bills have always been my problem. As to my larger point about the Yankees teams that I have rooted for: are they not among the best run and most stable organizations in sports? The Bills cycle through coaches and GMs like there is no tomorrow, and all they do is lose. But that's irrelevant anyway: I don't root for the Cowboys or Raiders. The Cowboys are hardly dysfunctional either - they have been to the playoffs something like 10 times in the past 15 years.

wha ...? His foot may actually be fine now. None of us know.

I think this is an optimistic assessment. You may prove to be right, but I've read so many predictions about the Bills doing what many thought sensible - keeping Whaley on, matching Gillislee, etc. etc. -- that I don't have faith that this is anything other than what it suggests: he's not in their plans. I hope I'm wrong. The foot might be worse than we know about, of course.

Vic C's account sounds plausible to me - http://buffalonews.com/2017/05/01/vic-caruccis-bills-wake-call-new-gm-wont-change-structure/

? - Cashman has been gm for 20 years. Girardi is in his tenth season. George has been dead nearly a decade. They haven't had a losing season in over two decades. And i didn't root for the Yankees in their last dysfunctional period (late 80s-early 90s). Indeed, alongside the Patriots, the Steelers, and the Spurs, the Yankees have been among the most functional sports franchises since around 1995.

Great piece! Since none of us were at the league meetings, I'd say none of us could have written it. It's a great piece by a good sportswriter. The bills are about the most dysfunctional organization i have ever rooted for, and it's not close.

I generally agree, but if their is a distinct trajectory of improvement in the most recent games, that's worth noting too.

Fair enough! One last thing though - the Bills have not beaten Pittsburgh in this century. Most of the games have been total domination by Pittsburgh.

Defense was a lot worse; Taylor was OK (that is, not bad) in a bad situation. He didn't dominate or carry to the team to victory in an adverse situation; that I'll agree to. Otherwise, that's my view and I'm sticking with it.

He'll always be Opie to me.

It's like you're not accounting for the fact that the Steelers were very good last season. They were a far better team - both in terms of overall talent and especially in the realm of coaching. Haley made a fool out of the Ryans that day despite the bad picks that Roethlisberger ill-advisedly threw. The Steelers dominated time of possession from their very first drive even though they didn't score.

I think he played OK against a good defense (11th in defensive DVOA). He wasn't great, and he wasn't horrible. They basically had no chance to win because the Bills defense was so bad. Let's not forget that. The Steelers ran 73 plays to the Bills 48 and had the ball for nearly 40 minutes. Also, the Bills' pass blocking was wretched that day; their line was eaten alive. I'm not saying he played great, but he hit a bunch of nice longer throws that day and didn't wilt. He played hard to the end. They never really had a chance to come back, but it's not as if Pitt stopped playing D out there. It ended up being a one-score game despite Pitt's total dominance.

It's not just one game; it's the last three games he played in. In all of them, he had a rating of 100+. He wasn't perfect in all of them, but no one is perfect. The trajectory points upward, but maybe it's just random statistical noise because of weak competition. We'll know for sure once the 2017 season is underway. At the end of the day, his lifetime QBR with Buffalo is 94.2.

It is the case that Sammy Watkins started getting healthy near the end of the season. Let's not forget that for much of the season, the WR corps was among the league's very worst.

I went with Trubisky.