BillsVet

There was no substantive attempt to re-sign Woods. In two off-seasons this team allowed Watkins, Woods, and Hogan to leave via UFA or trade. And people complain about how the WR group was so poor this year. Some of this is on the Whaley regime, but a fair amount on the McBeane pairing. It is dumbfounding how the Pegula's never once hired any type of consultant to do an overview of the organization. Or, not that I'm aware of. They blindly retained Whaley, then hired RR when Marrone resigned, hired McCoach, and went along with his recommendation for Beane. The NFL is more competitive than it's ever been and mistakes during their tenure are still being made. CT is correct - NFL football is not something that's easy to figure out.

This reminds me somewhat of a few coaches that have gone with what they have rather than drastically change a roster or personnel in an area (offense or defense) to suit their style. Wade wasn't a great HC in Dallas, but he knows defense and those that he worked with in Denver were fantastic this last time around. He didn't impose a 3-4, but used DeMarcus Ware and Von Miller along with a talented secondary quite effectively. Or, Mike Tomlin upon going from Minnesota's Tampa 2 as DC to being Pittsburgh's HC that already had a 3-4 going. He didn't change things. Counter that with McCoach who rebuilt the defense, has traded key personnel, and made sure the rebuild would take at least 3 years to complete. In a perfect world, I'd want a HC and coordinators who are flexible and use the talent they are presented with rather than do a complete tear-off. That didn't happen in Buffalo. Yet, we're going to see what McBeane do in off-season year 3 now that they've got their way.

That's a good question...he's shown an inability to draft a QB (Osweiler, Paxton Lynch) and that's usually going to end your career. At some point Joe Ellis needs to find a way to move on from Elway as GM.

McDermott signing Davis is almost the same thing as Gregggg pushing for Eddie Robinson in 2002. Now, if only Chad Pennington could make a comeback and juke Davis out of his cleats.

No, he's not been let go:

And when it's time to re-sign both players, I'm thinking Mahomes will get paid more than Tyreek Hill. By at least 10M per season. When did people on a message board start posting threads that resembled the click-bait ads that run on every website? Because I'm pretty sure they're not getting paid by view.

Wondering about what might have happened offers no value and it's impossible to know if Reich would have succeeded or not. With all due respect, you do a lot of worrying. I remember Brandon being laughed at while attending the 2008 NFL Combine. He had no place there and was not versed in personnel, although he cited talking to John Butler as evidence he had some experience. To think, the lead personnel decision makers for the Buffalo Bills in 2008-09 were Russ Brandon, Dick Jauron, Tom Modrak (RIP), and John Guy.

Every year teams use first round picks on left tackles and they're almost never available on the free agent market. The question is, why? Sure, teams can get by without an All-Pro caliber type. But the freedom it gives an offense to match their LOT up against the opponents' best pass rusher (as Peters did with Mack on Sunday) is tremendous. Yeah, the game is evolving. QBs are making shorter drops to mitigate outstanding pass rushers. But if you've got one of these guys, you want to keep him. Buffalo is still feeling the pain, as evidenced by the multitude of guys who they've thrown out there since the 2009 season.

One wild card weekend's worth of games does not disprove an entire decade plus worth of regular season play. Besides, the playoffs isn't representative of what happens during the grind of a 16 game season anyway. It'd be like saying the NHL playoffs is indicative of better defense because goal scoring is down from the regular season. Of course it is. There's more being contested AND the teams are better. You don't out-scheme the rules. It's why league scoring has been steadily rising the past decade from 21.5 points per team per game in 2009 to 23.3 this season. As for citing the Ravens offense, it's not hard to confuse a rookie QB who's passing skills are extremely raw.

Better change the rules to reduce PI and RTP calls because defenses are playing not to be flagged. This has permanently influenced how the game is being played from emphasis on positional value (reducing RB, LB, DT for example) to the rise in passing as part of a team's offense, to coach selection, et al.

There's no need to worry about losing Daboll right now because I doubt he winds up with one of the 6 remaining HC jobs. Whatever happens, happens and it's out of their control. The real issue is how bad OC's getting hired to be HC's will affect the league. Everyone's looking for the next McVay, but those guys aren't growing on trees. I can see some undeserving types getting HC jobs and not being ready and/or not talented enough to handle the gig. Developing an offense is harder than ever with HC turnover, new schemes to implement, free agency moving players around, and the demand for instant results. And, they require incredible precision, not to mention an excellent QB. Right now, there are 6 HC vacancies. Of installed HCs, 1 who comes from the special teams side, 9 from the defensive side, and 16 offensive. The supply of great offensive minds will not, as with QBs, keep up with demand. Something's gotta give eventually. 18 teams have changed HCs since the beginning of the 2017 off-season (BUF, MIA, NYJ, CIN, CLE, IND, TEN, DEN, LAC, OAK, NYG 2x, CHI, DET, GB, TB, AZ 2x, LAR, SF)

There is no one way to organize your management team. Pete Carroll effectively hired John Schneider in Seattle and that's worked well for them.

Who made Jason Peters great? Mularkey, Jauron? Any guesses? As good as Mouse McNally was, Peters was a rare physical specimen (who ran a sub 5.0 40 at the combine weighing 330 pounds). He earned the accolades he received. And, in careers that often last under 4 years, he wanted to get paid after being among the league's best at perhaps the most difficult position to play next to QB. Buffalo gave him a raise in 2005 to play RT and he excelled. He moved to LT in mid-season 2006 and was pretty much dominant (or "dominate" for some fans). You don't get selected to 9 Pro Bowls, voted 1st Team All-Pro 2 times, and 2nd Team All-Pro 4 other times unless you're talented. So talented in fact, that Philadelphia immediately gave him a 6 year 60m contract after the trade. Then later signed him to another 50M+ deal. Buffalo was too cheap to pay elite talent and that's why they traded him. Thank goodness this organization isn't run as poorly as it was a decade ago.

There is no better enduring image of Brandon, a.k.a. Mr. Smithers. Imagine asking for a way to get more playing time, becoming a good starting RT, then getting kicked over to LT mid-season 2006, being a 2nd Team All-Pro, and finding out Derrick freaking Dockery got a huge contract. And they won't pay you at a position of more value. Peters has a good chance of making it to Canton. And Russ Brandon? He's unemployed now. That's karma for you.

This was April 2009. All I could think was dealing Peters officially signaled to me that Buffalo wasn't interested in competing. I doubt Brandon could get Littmann to sign off on a deal like what Peters signed upon going to Philadelphia. Something like 6 years 60M.

The good news is the sycophants were sent packing, but it took a few years of Pegula before that could happen. I've often laughed thinking of Doug Whaley being one of the last vestiges of that late RW era. He was no doubt behind the anti-Rex stories and figured that once RR was out of the way that he'd get say in the next HC. Well, McCoach came on board and figured out that Whaley was a problem and then had him fired after the draft. Thank goodness. As for Jason Peters, I was watching that Bears-Eagles game and find it amazing that he was traded 10 years ago for essentially Eric Wood. And yet, Peters is still there playing (although Mack beat him a few times). These are better days than the late RW years when doing what it took to win was not a high priority. McBeane want to win and have ownership's support, but this is a more competitive league that it was during the Marv/DJ/Brandon years of '06-'09. Or even the Nix/Whaley boondoggle of '10-'13.

I'm talking specifically about overpaying in UFA, which will be required when that market opens. The draft should typically be used to obtain players at positions that aren't available in UFA like pass rusher, perhaps OT, WR, and (forgive me BillinNYC) CB.

For a split second there, I thought his girlfriend's name was Andy before I opened the thread.

Maurice Pouncey requested his release from Miami. http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/22775721/mike-pouncey-released-miami-dolphins-add-daniel-kilgore-trade The Bills have gone about building the OL the wrong way for so many years. They've tried to buy one (Dockery, Hughes in '07) then use high picks for immediate need (Wood, Levitre '09) went cheap (Nix with Pears, Urbik, Rinehart) and now we're back to square one. There's going to be a lot of competition in the UFA market this year with teams having so much cap room. Agree with Bandit that it's time to overpay because frankly, how do you put a true cost on keeping Allen upright and making throws downfield? They'll do their work on guys, but going cheap isn't an option. McBeane have put all their eggs into the 2019 basket and HAVE to win.

Well, this is what happens when you fire Russ Brandon.

It's a bold strategy Cotton. Trouble separating was a theme this season. If they're going to have guys who struggle separating they had better be able to make contested catches. Zay had a hard time with this despite the stats he recorded.

Way too much sideline clapping. And penalties of course.

Building an OL is not something that's going to happen in one off-season. The surface level view is that Buffalo use high picks and UFA and voila! we're good. The reality is, a good OL group takes time to mesh and it's why OL play has suffered over the years. Signing a Matt Paradis would be nice on paper but he's got to fit with what they're doing and how they're doing it. The other issue is, from an economics standpoint, there's going to be a lot of demand for better OL and not much supply this off-season. Lotta teams with plenty of cap room.

Reading some replies here, you might believe Gilmore personally visited select fans and gave them the finger on his way to New England. Guy was voted First Team All-Pro and it's a good topic for discussion. Threads like this bring out some of the best and also some of the worst posters.

I have to think it's because Tre's persona is more excited and happy as opposed to Gilmore. Frankly, I don't think it matters, but emotion is everything nowadays. The bit Tre did with the hockey goalie stuff though is pretty funny. I could never see Gilmore doing anything like that.