mushypeaches

This really shouldn't be a shock to anyone

Bill O'Brien is a pale imitation of the guys he's trying to emulate. Can you imagine being a fan of that team?

91 - Broncos AFC Championship - 3 missed Denver FG's in the first half, our own anemic offense bailed out by Bailey 92 - The Comeback game - 18 years old and ready to punch an Oilers fan at halftime 93 - Raiders AFC Division - 0 degrees at kickoff and the coldest I'd ever been. My friend found a $20 bill on the ground and treated us all to hot cocoa (spiked with whiskey) 95 - Dolphins WC game - 300 bajillion yards rushing and one last butt-kicking administered to Don Shula and Tom Olivadotti 00 - Titans opening weekend. Revenge game and probably the loudest I've ever heard the stadium Only 35 games attended as I've lived outside of the area most of the last 15 years. But still great memories

I like Tre White for this list - not in the same way as most of the others, but pressure to put up a Pro Bowl type season - either step up and put up name-recognition stats that make it a no-brainer to get a big 2nd contract from the Bills. This is his year to prove he can be consistently, demonstrably GREAT

Not a fan of the risk/reward ratio behind this move. I get that QB contracts are only going to continue to go up astronomically, but with the value of having talented young passers on rookie contracts, why hamstring yourself with a guy with an injury history. The downside of waiting another year is probably $15-20M over the life of the contract. The upside is possibly saving the $70M that you just guaranteed if he gets hurt again or never approaches his level of play due to nagging injuries/pain.

That's humorous. So you would characterize the 2nd halves of the Ravens, Chargers, Packers, Bears, Colts, and Patriots games as "good football", highly entertaining, enjoyable, and rewarding for Bills fans? Pretty confident that 99 out of 100 Bills fans are on the other end of that spectrum...

Yes - I will be disappointed. I don't want a borderline wild-card team that can't dance with the champs. You want to be the man, you have to beat the man

Well said Hondo, this is exactly the point I was trying to make. I like the effort that McDermott is putting into all the points that you've cited. But I'd really like it if he was more focused on some of these other intangible topics, like game theory, strategic aggressiveness, etc. We've been woefully unprepared (totally unrelated to talent) for way too many games in the first 2 years. We've had too many vanilla game plans, with not enough strategic adjustments. I think McDermott (and staff) are way too REACTIVE, and not PROACTIVE enough with game plans and play calls These are the traits I want in a coach - someone who will push the envelope and force the opponent to beat them, instead of hoping that you don't get beaten. Big difference

You know what's fun? Winning I don't hate McDermott, but the number of times I've turned off the TV at halftime over the past couple of years has been unfrigginbelievable. Also, not really fun!

I don't think it's wrong to be skeptical here. I like that he's constantly pushing himself and the team to learn and grow (unlike most previous head coaches). But until it really translates to game day aggressiveness and adjustments, I'm not overly excited. Personally, I'll judge him this year by our results against the Patriots. Win one of those games, and I'll say that McDermott might be getting there. But if it's SSDD, he's just Jauron 2.0 to me

I think the larger point here is that "Bills Culture" means a lot of different things to different people. There's varying levels of engagement, history, passion, knowledge, and alcohol consumption. I like the fact that we have a passionate fanbase, affordable tickets, a great gameday scene, and a fun team. It will be even more enjoyable when we win.

I've given some thought to compiling this type of analysis, but would require a pretty big effort. At least for the Bills, I know or can easily reference who we kept and why. I don't think it has as much to do with not wanting to play in Buffalo as much as management not having the right strategy toward team building and/or constant turnover, and not wanting to overpay for commensurate talent & production. Players will stay if they're valued and paid

Yes - I went back to 1985 draft picks - only wanted to count those drafted from 1989 onward, as 1993 would have been the first year that they would have started receiving second contracts. Also didn't count others such as Bruce Smith, Will Wolford, Nate Odomes, Keith McKeller, and Mark Pike - who got second contracts before the onset of modern free agency in 1993

With this year's draft complete and everyone high on our choices, as well as a lot of the current regimes decisions over the past 2 years, I decided to delve into the Bills draft history over the past 30 or so years, just to remember the history of hits & misses, and try to think about why we've been largely stuck in the mud since the SB era. One can analyze our draft history in lots of different ways, most of them leading to frustration, but I decided to look at how many of our draft picks over time received 2nd contracts from the team. There are so many reasons why we haven't been successful, with mediocre drafting being one piece of the puzzle. But along with having constant turnover in coaching staffs and philosophies, I'm willing to bet that we have one of the lowest percentages of re-signing our draft picks since the start of the modern Free Agency era (1993). A lot of it is "chicken vs egg" - meaning that with turnover in regimes, the new braintrust changes schemes and wants to bring in their own guys to fit them - so it does become somewhat self-fulfilling. Since the 1989 draft, of the 217 eligible players (meaning not counting draft picks since 2016 that are still on the team), we have only re-signed 30 of those players to 2nd contracts - 13.8%. The most sobering truth of this number is that with the retirement of Kyle Williams, we currently have ZERO players on the roster that were drafted by the Bills and on a 2nd contract. Hard to fathom, even with the emphasis on younger players in the new CBA. It does appear that the current regime is trying to reverse that trend, but it takes a long time to build continuity and clear direction. Breaking down positions - here's some additional detail: QB - none since Jim Kelly & Frank Reich. No need to belabor our lack of success in drafting & developing this position RB - none since Thurman Thomas. I know that RB is a fungible position, but how many times did we draft high only to lather, rinse, and repeat 3-4 years later? WR - Eric Moulds, Josh Reed, Lee Evans, Roscoe Parrish, Stevie Johnson, and wait for it... Marcus Easley (!) TE - Jay Riemersma OL - Cordy Glenn, Eric Wood, Ruben Brown, and John Fina D-Line - Marcell Dareus, Chris Kelsay, Ryan Denney, Aaron Schobel LB - last ones were Sam Rogers, Marlo Perry, Mark Maddox & Marvcus Patton. Long time ago, and not a star to be found there DB - Aaron Williams, Leodis McKelvin, Terrance McGee, Nate Clements, Ken Irvin, Kurt Schulz, Henry Jones Going back and looking at the guys we drafted but didn't re-sign, it always felt like we were either up against the cap, or didn't really value the guys that we had. It's tough because you don't want to overpay for talent, but you then have to draft their replacements or end up overpaying in Free Agency anyways. A look back at guys from previous drafts that we didn't re-sign: 2012 - Stephon Gilmore - big $, but should have been kept 2009 - Andy Levitre - got paid, but how much have we churned the line since then? He's still in the league 2007 - Marshawn Lynch - yes, he had issues, but what did we really gain by drafting CJ Spiller in 2010 2007 - Paul Posluszny - not a great player, but ended up playing 11 years in the league 2006 - Donte Whitner - see previous comment 2003 - Willis McGahee - similar to Marshawn, another 11 year player in the league 2002 - Justin Bannan - never a great player, but bounced around as depth for 12 seasons 2001 - Ron Edwards - same comment, another 12 year vet 2000 - Sammy Morris - 12 years in the league - highly valued by the Pats on ST 1999 - Antoine Winfield - 14 seasons - think we should have kept him? 1997 - Marcellus Wiley - again, we were up against the cap at the time, but should have been kept 1994 - Jeff Burris - wanted too much money, but played 10 years 1993 - Thomas Smith - same comment as Burris 1993 - Corbin Lacina - never more than a stopgap starter, but played for 11 years So here's to hoping that even if our most recent picks don't all end up as stars, that we continue to develop them, and maybe hang on to a few. Depth and continuity are still to be valued, and hanging on to your own guys helps them know that they are valued by the team and not just counting the time until someone else pays them.

If this guy is taking significant snaps for us this year, then we are in trouble. Need more DE talent than what we have

How do these tinfoil hats keep reproducing within our fan base?

But, but, but...... the national narrative is that Josh Allen sucks and will never get better I'm still liking him as early career John Elway

The best answer is that we don't... CJ Spiller Marshawn Lynch Willis Mcgahee Travis Henry Antowain Smith Lather, rinse, repeat, and finish 7-9

Draft will be 75% defense. I think that Beane recognizes that he needs quality over quantity at this point as well as filling out special teams and even creating depth on the Practice Squad. This is why I'm hopeful to see some bundling and/or trading of later round picks to focus on getting a couple of high impact players this year, or re-setting ourselves up to do the same next year. There are a couple of decent sized holes left to fill, and you're never going to go into a draft feeling 100% comfortable with your current roster, but I can't remember a time in recent memory where we were truly able to go BPA and not reach for a need or compensate for self-inflicted wounds (like not giving second contracts to your own previous draft picks)

My opinion is that by halfway through the season, there was no harm in putting him into the lineup given the stiffs that we were parading out there on a weekly basis. Frankly, they should have been doing more of this, and earlier, given the outlook on the season. He had his ups, and his downs, which is all that anyone should have reasonably expected. Now, with more talent presumably coming into the pipeline, we can make a reasonable evaluation

If we spend $10M+ on a LB, without improvement to the DL, then we've wasted our money. This is a luxury for us at this stage in our development.

Kelly was really not well liked until well into his 5th year when the K-Gun started clicking. Up until then, most of the fan base remained very skeptical and often railed on him on a week-to-week basis. Not that he played particularly badly, but our offensive philosophy was mostly conservative at best and he often tried to force the issue. Not hard to think about how this could play out in the near future with Josh Allen. Poor line play, plus conservative coaching and play calling will keep him from reaching his ceiling from a play perspective. But his positive attitude, leadership, and running ability probably already have him ahead of Kelly from a fan approval perspective. Maybe based more on lower expectations than anything else though.

If we draft another WR with a top 10 pick, I may take the gas pipe... Doesn't have to be any more complicated than building the lines, and the skill positions will take care of themselves

Depressing that we have not beaten the Steelers since 1999. Doug Flutie vs Kordell Stewart

Let’s all take off the tinfoil hats