Dibs

I apologize. I wrongly assumed that your comment was one of misplaced emotional perspective......whereas in fact it was one of intellectual observation. My only excuse is that misplaced emotional perspective seems to be the norm around here lately.

No one ever said anything about paying more money than for the same talent.....and to say so is just plain dumb.

I had to look that up in the urban dictionary.....the standard one didn't have it. Don't confuse me like that.

Not all players on a team need be top players. We all hated Whitner.....but the 49ers were happy enough to sign him up. I don't understand why so many people feel that our #2 CB or #2 DE should be as good as other team's #1 player. Look around the league.....it's full of players like Whitner or McKelvin or.....I don't know their names because they are mediocre NFL players.

I'd have to do some research(which I don't want to do).....but I'd say that your 25% is largely comprised of backups, below average starters & situational players. Adding 5 solid starters(or better) in any given year would be an extremely good year. That would be hitting on 2 rookies & acquiring 3 FAs....not a likely situation.

I'm astounded that all of the smart player cuts(& retirements).....the ones that made sense to everyone....the ones that people were hankering for.....turned into bad decisions because they opened up "holes to fill". .....and then people complained that we hadn't filled the holes yet!!! How can we fill the holes before FA starts??? It does my head in.

Play the BPA game....no thank you. Trade up or down....do whatever is needed to be done to land a 1st round graded QB. If that can't be done....trade up or down....do whatever is needed to land the best LB. No other position will help this team as much in the short or long terms.

What a magnificent species we humans are.

I never understood a 3 year plan for a rebuild. That's adding 7 new starters a year. That's crazy stuff.

I agree that we are in "rebuilding" mode.....but we are not starting over......we are about to hit year 4 of it. If we re-sign Levitre & McKelvin we will have 16 of 22 starters pretty much locked in. 10 of those have become Bills within the last 3 years......3 within the last 4 years.....2 within the last 5 years.....1 within the last 7 years.

I do.

There is no place on this board for that sort of thinking! Don't rationalize that there might be information you don't know that could affect the situation.......stand firm in your thoughts & rant and rave to your heart's content about how moronic the Bills are.

Not unless both picks happen to be at the very, very top of the 2nd round......and even then it's likely a 25% chance(total) at best that you come away with a QB of equal worth to Smith.

When you say "Coaching + Elite QB", I assume you don't just mean having a coach....because every team has a coach & therefore has coaching. I figure you must mean "good coach"....or "decent coach"? All teams go through ebbs and flows.....better years and worse years. Relating things back to the thread premise.....how many games would the Bills have won last year if we had a Brady/Rodgers/Big Ben type QB? We won 6 with a horrid 4th quarter QB, terrible coaching, a pathetic defense & an inordinate number of injuries. With all that against us we likely would have won 9+ games with an Elite QB instead of Fitz. How many games would we have won with a better defense and fewer injuries? 12? 13? Would that make Chan a good coach? A decent(not good) Coach that has an Elite QB, is regularly in the running for the SB(depending on standard ebb & flow). A good Coach that doesn't have an Elite QB, is regularly subject to the standard ebb & flow....with virtually no chance of the SB. I'm going to assume you mean "decent" coach as it surely can't be a massive coincidence that all of the Elite QBs happen to have good coaches as well. Finding a decent coach(neither great, nor bad) is not as hard as us Bills fans would think.

I actually tried to have a look at the Super Bowl winning HC records they had without their Star QB. It was very difficult as often the first thing a new HC does is find their star QB. Here is the list of SB winning HC for the last 10 years. John Harbaugh: Flacco drafted 1st year.....performed well 1st year. Tom Coughlin: Eli Manning drafted 1st year....performed poorly 1st year(6-10).....performed well 2nd year. Mike McCarthy: Favre in 1st 2 seasons.....Rodgers thereafter. Sean Payton: Brees in 1st year. Mike Tomlin: Big Ben already there. Tony Dungy: 76% win record with P. Manning....56% win record without star QB. Bill Cowher: 73% win record with Big Ben....56% win record without star QB. Bill Belichick: 77% win record with Brady....45% win record without star QB.

Being fair to the OP......he wasn't being racist himself......in fact was attempting to be the opposite by saying that the racists here don't give players like Leodis a fair go because he is black. It was a misguided and unwise thing to say.

You seem very convinced about that.

My point is that when you have a solid starter at QB who can regularly win you games and get you into the playoffs.....you don't look for a better one. I understand that most people will never agree with me.....and when I tilt my head a little, I hardly agree with myself on this.....but when I look at the big picture, I don't want the Bills to just be a solid team with virtually no chance to win the SB each year. I personally would be willing to put up with another 5+ years of non-playoffs if it means that we find a QB who can take us all the way. I agree that one can never know.....but some things are more or less likely than others. There is enough doubt that we won't select a QB in the 1st round this year as it is.....does anybody think that if we traded valuable draft picks for a QB who could settle the team, win games & get us into the playoffs that we would also spend a 1st round pick on QB? We would have Smith as an entrenched starter until he either got injures, retired, or we managed to trade him. Neither Flynn nor Wilson are comparable. Flynn still has not shown anything substantial in the NFL(2 starts in 5 years)......and Wilson was a 3rd round pick who(assuming he maintains his level of play) astoundingly became a very good QB. You can throw 3rd-7th round picks at QBs for decades without seeing one that becomes a solid starter let alone a star player.

LOL.....sad, but true. <sigh>.

I am a little concerned that we showed interest in Alex Smith. That's not to say that I don't think that he is a good QB.....I do think that. I would place him in the 2nd tier of QBs. By showing interest in A Smith, it is clear that the prime focus for the Bills is to win some more games and make the playoffs. On the surface, that sounds like a good strategy. The problem is that it is invariably the top tier QBs who win the Super Bowls. Having a 2nd tier guy usually means that he stays with your team till he gets too old.....and usually he commands a high priced contract.....and he will only have the tiniest of chances to lead your team to the promised land. Going after a 2nd tier QB in my mind is saying....."Forget about becoming Champions.....we'll keep the fans placated by offering them wins/playoffs instead." .....unless our FO believes that he can become a 1st tier QB which is worrying in itself. I want us to win games and regularly make the playoffs.....but I really, really, really want us to win the Super Bowl.

I think slightly irrelevant to just how good/great he may be compared to his peers......it seems to me that you are correct with your 23% figure being illogical. The overall cap number has increased only 3m in the last 2 seasons from 120m to 123m(somebody please correct me if I'm wrong on this). I tend to think that the increases in FA contracts across the board have been escalating at an unrealistic pace over the last 2 years......perhaps due to teams assuming a standard historically higher cap increase. I wouldn't be surprised if FA contracts for this year(and future years?), for all positions are reduced compared to the previous 2 years. (Obviously I am talking solid starter to high end contracts here and not journeymen roster filler ones).

Me too. In doing all of those drafting studies, I saw a lot of players like McKelvin who seemed to be slow developers move teams, and then have 4+ years of solid work. Though I'm not saying I believe that this will necessarily happen....his development last year combined with his return ability have me thinking it a wise gamble to bring him back.

Not that I can recall in a thread starting post.

I found it difficult to read past this sentence. You realize that raising the concept of racism on the board will likely totally detract from any discussion you might have wanted to have about McKelvin's abilities etc?

You can have as many good coaching staffs, coordinators, QB coaches, lines, WRs, RBs, TEs etc as you want........if you don't have a top QB, you typically won't be going very far into the playoffs.