JohnC

Wasn't he a member of the Doobie Brothers?

You make a good point. Taylor would be a terrific backup. If the offense was sputtering his style of play not only is a change of pace but also the style of play that could add energy to a stuck offense. Baltimore wanted to keep him as their backup. They hated to see him go but wished him well knowing that he wanted to seek an opportunity to start. However, if Peterman ends up taking the reigns from him this season I don't see Taylor wanting to stay here.

If option #1 isn't available then go to option #2. If option #2 isn't available then go to option #3. If option #3 isn't available then go to option #4. Just because you can't get your preferred option that doesn't mean that you can't still get a good qb. There should be nearly half a dozen good qb prospects in this draft. With some of our added picks we should be in a good position to get one of them. Especially with the qb position it's not unusual that your lesser ranked player turns out to be better than your highly ranked player. Let's not make the pursuit of perfect be the enemy of the good.

I don't understand your response. No one is saying that you have to have a Brady or Rodgers caliber qb to succeed. Those elite players are a rare commodity. You simply can't assume that you can acquire that type of qb. You missed the point, as you often do distorting what is said. What I am saying is that you have to have a legitimate franchise qb to seriously compete. In my view TT is not now a franchise qb and never will be. You again distorted or misinterpreted how I ranked our roster over-all. No one on this board more than I has stated that the Bills are currently in a rebuilding process that it is going to take another few years before the roster is good enough to compete at a serious level. Your point that you need a good roster to succeed is childishly obvious. When have I said otherwise? When has anyone else said otherwise? If you want to disagree that is fine. But stop making up stuff so that you can argue against a manufactured narrative created by you. With all due respect you can do better than that.

A worn out Peyton won a SB not because of Brock Osweiler but because the Broncos not only had the best defense in the league but a dominating defense. If you want to make an argument that for the short term you can be successful with an adequate qb such as TT that is reasonable. But the better argument to be made is that with a good qb you can have a successful run even without a complete roster. The problem with a qb such as TT and even Kaep is that their deficiencies become more exposed and pronounced as time goes by. Getting Taylor when we did was a gift. It gave this woeful franchise time to find a more well-rounded and credible franchise qb. Not only didn't they do it but they allowed opportunities when available to pass by. Think how the dynamic would have changed for this bedraggled franchise if it would have traded down and still be able to draft Carr?

It doesn't matter what you wear you will never qualify as good looking. https://www.google.com/search?q=alfred+e+neuman+images&rlz=1C1SFXN_enUS498US610&oq=Alfred+E+Neuman&aqs=chrome.5.69i57j0l5.17803j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Excellent analysis. But let's put things in perspective. The defense has been stabilized in short order and is functioning well. (As you noted.) Clearly the offense is devoid of playmakers and in my opinion an inadequate qb. (I'm aware you are more positive on TT than I.) While your exasperating tone on the offense is proper and understandable it must be understood that not every issue was going to be addressed in the first year. The organization has accumulated a bucket of picks for next year's draft. That's better than gratuitously giving up picks for marginal gain at best. If the Bills don't come up with a legitimate franchise qb and a burst of talent with their numerous high picks then the McDermott/Beane strategy of rebuilding will fail. When the new regime entered the scene it should have been expected that this team was going to take its lumps in the first couple of years. What did you expect? The same Whaley patchwork approach to building an 8-8 type of roster? I consider Watkins to be a sterling talent. But with or without him the Bills were not going to make the playoffs. We ended up with a second round pick and a starting CB for a player that we might not have been able to keep. A new regime no matter how smart it is was not going to quickly revive the sclerotic organization that it was taking over. This year's product was predictably going to be difficult to digest. What's so surprising? Maybe you don't but I do prefer enduring the pain of the early years of a thorough remake than enduring another dispiriting generational status quo of a woeful operation.

Don't count me in the crowd that is demanding that a rookie qb be handed the starting job. That's not what I have advocated or want. I want a prime qb prospect on the roster so the grooming process is started sooner rather than later. Until that is done little else matters. I have stated before that I don't believe that this roster will be good enough to make the playoffs for another three years after this season.

I agree with you that in order for an offense to succeed you have to have speed and explosiveness. But let's put things in a real world perspective. There was no way that this roster on both sides of the ball could be reconfigured in one year. And there is no way that an offense could be effective without a franchise qb. I consider Watkins to be a superlative talent, a dynamic receiver when healthy. His abilities were neutered because of the stunted qb situation. On the positive side let's acknowledge how McDermott stabilized a defensive unit that was in disarray under Rex. As I stated in the prior post in one year our new HC completely revamped the defensive backfield. Not only did he rebuild that defensive backfield but he did it with a zone defense that didn't require more expensive man to man players such as Gilmore and in the not too distant future a more expensive Darby. That was a very excellent exchange from a talent to cost ration. Our next draft is going to be very critical as to whether the timetable for the rebuild is accelerated or stalled. For me it all comes down to the qb issue. If we can obtain a legitimate franchise qb prospect without shedding too many picks then an infusion of talent should bolster the roster. There is no guarantee but it comes down to the draft. If you want to find an early gauge track how our top three picks progress this year. If they advance as players then we have a sense that this scouting staff is more adept than the previous staff. On the Mahomes issue I am with you. When you have an opportunity you have to seize it. The best book I have read on the Viet Nam was David Halberstam's The Best and the Brightest. What's clear is that the intellectuals who created the rationality and strategy for that war may have been smart from an academic standpoint but lacked a knowledge of the regional history and wisdom. It got a lot of names placed on a wall!

You and Blokes may have been the engineers who blew the whistle on Mahomes but it was JeffisMagic who rode that steel horse to not only exhaustion but to death! The irony of the Mahomes addition to the Chiefs is that adding him to the roster has made Alex Smith a better qb by forcing him to throw the ball downfield more instead of his Trentative habit of dinking and dunking. It always has been a mystery to me why Alex Smith stubbornly refused to throw the ball deeper when he has all the tools to be good at it. I'm looking forward to some good draft evaluations of this year's qb class. The ideal situation is to be in a good position to select a good prospect without dealing off some or too many of our picks. An infusion of talent should accelerate the rebuilding process. I still believe that is this is a four year process. The ridiculous Rex hire set this franchise back.

I always appreciate your thoughtful responses even when I have a different view. As you well know I and the notorious JeffisMagic strenuously advocated for selecting Mahomes with our first round pick. However, the wrestling coach seems to have believed that in the next draft there will be better options at qb. Many scouts agree with that stance. What McDermott is doing is starting a major rebuild and doing it primarily through the draft. (Note: It must be acknowledged that McDermott masterfully revamped the defensive backfield unit in one offseason.) With that strategy in mind one has to agree that he is implementing his plan with the accumulation of draft picks. That certainly is a refreshing departure from the Whaley approach toward the draft. His gratuitously shedding of picks for marginal gain was maddening. Keeping Taylor or bringing in Foles or Chase Daniels is not an argument worth expending energy over. None of them are franchise qbs. So if you have a similar caliber qb what difference does it make? Why pursue another player when you already have that caliber of player on your roster? Regardless which qb you have they are all temporary players who will (hopefully) will be replaced. I agree with you that Foles and Daniels may be a better fit for the preferred offense but it is still for the short-term. What is probably going to happen this year is Peterman will end up replacing Taylor once the playoffs get out of reach. I don't consider our rookie qb to be a permanent solution for the qb position. The core point that I am making in this discourse is that this year has to be considered as only a small segment of the actual rebuilding plan. The record this year has little importance other than how it positions the organization in its ability to draft a franchise qb next year. In the grand scheme of things some of the personnel decisions that you advocate for that make us incrementally better this season have little meaningful impact on how this roster is going to be reshaped in the next few years.

The Bills are essentially rebuilding in a full throttle manner. The issue regarding Taylor and how he fits in with this new regime is no mystery. The condition for him to stay was to have a reduced contract with an easy opt out for the team. He is a bridge qb caliber of player for this team and any other team that would have considered him. The market responded to his limited value. There were no takers, at least at the rate he wanted. He wisely adjusted to the market's lackluster response by staying with his current team where he had an opportunity to play. How Watkins was handled was the biggest tell as to what the staff had planned. Counting this year the Bills are involved in a four year rebuilding project built primarily through the draft. With that in mind the incentive for the organization is for at least the first year to be bad record wise so that it could be in a good position to draft a franchise qb. Not wanting to quibble with what you are saying because it makes sense but there is little doubt that McDermott, with the owners accord, planned on reconfiguring the front office and the roster to get beyond the Whaley model of building at best a fringe playoff team. That is exactly what they have done and are doing. There is no hidden agenda because it is there for everyone to see.

During that period of time there was a Wilson/Littman business model that was in force. What it came down to the more expensive players were being replaced with the cheaper drafted players. As you noted the departed players were then playing and contributing for other teams. In effect, the Bills were not adding to the talent base so much as they were churning players to stay within the Littman enforced salary structure. Your point about emphasizing positions with less impact is spot on. There has been for a long time little thought or good analysis of where to invest with your cap dollars. In addition, not focusing on the qb position when solidifying that position enables you to cover for other position weaknesses is an organizational irrationality that never made sense and to this day still doesn't make sense.

Although I'm not a Taylor fan as it stands he is our best option at qb. As you smartly and repeatedly have stated Peterman is not close to being ready to play. It would be not only unfair to replace Taylor as the starter it would also be unfair to Peterman and to his development to play him too soon before he is close to being ready. Taylor is a high character player and someone who has an exceptional work ethic. In a way he is being placed in a very untenable situation. With the trade of Watkins his chance of succeeding at a presentable level is being sabotaged. The current receiving corps is unable to get any space. With Watkins on the field, whether the play is directed to him or not, the spacing widens for everyone else. However, that is not to say that I don't understand why he was traded. This season is a small piece of a bigger picture planned when this new regime took over. It's simply a rebuilding process done in hopefully an accelerated pace because of the added draft picks, especially the early round picks. A lot of people are distraught over this loss to Carolina. They shouldn't be. The frustrated fans should be encouraged by how quickly this new regime turned around this chaotic defense in one off season. The next focus is going to be the offense. Hopefully, if the right qb prospect can be attained then in another couple of years this team will be in a good position to succeed.

Taking out the conspiratorial part of the original post what isn't improbable is Peterman getting a chance to start sometime during the season. It is very unlikely that this staff and the prior GM consider Taylor to be a franchise caliber qb for this team now or in the future. What is also very probable is that this staff will make it a priority to secure a top shelf qb prospect in the next draft using their surplus of picks if necessary to secure that caliber of prospect. Anyone who is fair-minded acknowledges that Taylor is working with a very deficient receiving corps that diminishes his chances, or any other qb, to be successful. However, anyone who is fair-minded acknowledges that even if his receiving corps was dramatically upgraded he simply isn't good enough as a qb to get this team anywhere meaningful. That's a reality that you have problems admitting, even when it is so starkly apparent.

Are you aware that you won't be condemned to hell if you admit the possibility that you might be wrong on your premature evaluation of the player under your jaundiced scrutiny? Trust me, you are strong enough to recover from your mistaken rushed opinion.

The whole defensive backfield unit is playing very well. Rookie White is playing like he is a vet. The change from Rex's confused and overwhelmed unit to an in sync and smart unit is dramatic and impressive. Coaching matters!

The positive takeaway from the game is the change from Rex's confused and overwhelmed defense to the wrestling coach's very good and smart defense. I have given my thoughts on Taylor so there is little reason in pointing out his deficiencies. But in his defense I have never seen a group of receivers who are worse at creating space for themselves. The defense was on the receivers like peanut butter and bread. The only receiver who seems capable of getting some separation is Clay. I have said it many times before and I will say it again: This is a rebuilding endeavor. It is going to take more likely four years (including this season in the count) before this team becomes more than a middling team. The assumption is that the Bills acquire a legitimate qb prospect in next year's draft. If not, then the drought count will continue on for another decade or so. JeffisMagic was vilified; JeffisMagic was right. Failing to seize on an opportunity to acquire a legitimate qb prospect has like a disease plagued this exasperating franchise. Dithering is not a solution; it is a problem.

I respectfully disagree with your view of a more abbreviated time frame for being a contending team. Assuming this team uses a high pick/s to draft a high end qb prospect it is rare that the rookie qb is going to have immediate success. It is standard that there isn't a quick turnaround with a rookie qb who will be going through the usual struggles of an inexperienced qb. I'll even go so far as saying that even in the second year of playing the qb will still be going through a learning process for the most challenging position in the game. That right there is three years. Let's also be real in acknowledging that this roster is going to take at least a few more years to go through a substantial overhaul to make this roster more robust.

The quarterback who eventually is going to be our franchise qb is not on the roster. Most people acknowledge that obvious reality. Taylor is what he has always been i.e. a bridge qb who currently gives this team the best chance to succeed. That doesn't mean that when this team falls out of the playoff race, as it will, that the wrestling coach will stick with Taylor as its starter. I'm not particularly a Taylor fan (as you well know) but to be fair to him because of the lack of talent in the receiving corps he is not being put in a position to succeed, or any other qb to succeed. The Bills are in a major rebuilding process. Including this year it is going to take another three to four years before this team becomes a serious team. Anyone who thought that this new regime was going to quickly turn around this sunken ship is in for a major disappointment.

The approach you are suggesting is the reason why the Bills keep missing out on good qb prospects. It is better to draft a qb a round sooner than wait a round later when addressing that position. If the Bills would have drafted Russell Wilson, Carr, Prescott etc a little bit early instead of waiting this franchise would be in a better situation. Lamar Jackson is not a finished product. He, more than Darnold and Rosen, has to polish his game to be a success in the pros. Smart and reasonable projecting would pay dividends when applied to this tremendously talented player. I'll make a prediction: By the time the season is over he will be ranked as a top ten prospect, regardless of position. Especially for this befuddled franchise dithering on the qb position has strangled this franchise. It's time that it loosens the self-administered noose and take a proactive approach to addressing such a critical need.

The player I'll be watching is Louisville's Lamar Jackson. He is still unpolished but under Petrino he is honing his game. I don't see the Bills being in a position to draft either Darnold or Rosen. They will be quickly coming off of the board. I believe that as a pro prospect Jackson will be steadily moving up the board as the season advances. In some respects his dynamic athleticism works against him in that it overshadows his abilities as a quarterback. From what I have seen he is a polished Vick with better character and work ethic. It seems to me that both Darnold and Rosen would be more ready as pros because they play on a more pro ready office. But given more time to adjust his game Jackson will be a terrific pro.

You bring up a good point regarding the conditions you wanted him under. This new staff was willing to retain him under the right conditions. They got a deal done under their own parameters. It was a good deal for TT considering the lackluster market for him and it was a good deal for the organization. In general, it was a well reasoned and executed decision. This qb decision fit within the framework of the bigger picture. That type of smart strategic and tactical thinking is reason for optimism. Without wanting to indict everyone from the BBMB room it had to be a raucous spit balling room. A lot of noise with little listening going on.

There is a solution to responding to juveniles: Don't! Be selective and respond to people who have something to say and say it in a reasonable manner. Just ignore the people who are attacking the poster rather than responding to the points being made. It seems that there is now more back and forth dueling going on without any advancing or exchanges on the points being brought up. Kirby and even the irascible Badol (Badol is in an oddball category onto itself ) often go back and forth with me but their responses are replete with good points. Don't allow yourself to be enticed into the mud. Pick and choose and be smart enough to disengage when it is called for. When you are drawn into others' childish tit for tat game you are the one who ultimately decides to play the lowly game.

The issue isn't whether TT is on the same hill or not as it is whether the hill he is on is high enough to get you where you want to go. If Taylor is as good or better than Tannehill or Dalton is that good enough? Without a doubt he is a good option at qb right now, and we are fortunate to have him at this point. But if your aspirations are to be a team that not only qualifies for the playoffs but also win in the playoffs then is he good enough? Whaley wanted to cut Taylor altogether. McDermott was willing to keep him on the condition that he took a pay cut and reduced length of contract. What does that tell you? Taylor is a very good bridge qb until a better option of qb is attained. If this franchise makes it a lesser priority to find a more impactful qb it will continue to meander along the path of mediocrity.