finn

Yes to a second. That leaves a first and third for defensive line and the two fours and free agency for the depleted secondary, with enough cap room to be made for resigning practically everyone.

That's a point. Brady leaned on his running a lot last season, and that's just not sustainable.

I'm not saying the Bills should stay pat on offense, just that they don't need another monster on that side of the ball. A Hollywood Brown or Darius Slayton would fit the bill nicely. Yes, with Metcalf they may score even more than the 31 ppg they scored last year (second best in the league), but if signing him means no first-round pick and no big splash in free agency, they'd need to score 35 points a game to compensate for a sieve-like defense.

Even then you're saddled with a second huge contract on offense, limiting what you can do on defense. Allen is a monster on offense, lifting the entire platform all by himself like Atlas. He doesn't need another superstar to win games, as we saw last season. He just needs a defense that can do its part, or at least not go belly up every week. No, Beane needs to throw pretty much every last resource into defense to make up for his meh draft record and McDermott's meh coaching. With ten picks and plenty of cash, maybe he'll hit somewhere, like the proverbial blind man. Fun to dream about a Metcalf-type bombshell, but the result would be like one of those weight lifters with a huge upper body and stick legs.

I can't see those two names without thinking Beane could have picked both of them. Instead, he chose Boogie Basham and Rashad Wildgoose. Yeah, hindsight and all, but the man lacks imagination. He doesn't want to take an excellent center high because he has an aging Mitch Morse, and he can't take a flier in the sixth round on an excellent guard with injury questions. I've had faith in Beane for years, but the evidence is accumulating that the draft is his weak suit, at least the early rounds. He trades up when he should trade down, trades down when he should stay put, and stays put when he should trade up. You could field a pro-bowl team with the players he's passed up to take the likes of Tremaine Edmunds, Cody Ford, Boogie Basham, AJ Epenesa, Kaiir Elam, and Dalton Kincaid.

I get it. There's no doubt Garrett would worth a first-round pick, even more. But where do you (and Beane) draw the line? What price is too steep? Remember, the Bills will be competing against teams that pick sooner, so his total package has to be more attractive. The 2025 and 2026 first-round picks, plus both number twos this year, plus Cook and Epenesa? Keep in mind there would also be the Miller-like drag on the cap, which will hobble Beane in free agency for years. That's an awfully steep price for a single player. He gets injured, and it's all over. Even if Garrett stays healthy and makes a big impact, the team will still suck at cornerback, defensive tackle, safety, and wide receiver, unless Beane hits on his fourth-round picks or completely mortgages the team's future to sign difference-makers in free agency. A great pass rush isn't much use without an adequate secondary. Who do we have back there besides Mr. Concussion? Meanwhile, Jones will be 35, Milano 31, and Douglas 31. We've been waiting in vain for years for Oliver and Rousseau to show the "it" factor, Bernard's early promise has faded, and Rapp is just plain mediocre, when he's not injured or injuring his teammates. In short, the cupboard is bare on defense, and one player won't make up for weakness at every other position. Beane has accumulated ten picks and can free up a ton of cash. Sign Slayton and Ty Johnson and you're good on offense. In a crazy-deep draft, pick up an impact defensive end and tackle. Use your next picks on secondary and linebacker depth, and sign DJ Reed at cornerback. Voila, a playoff-caliber team ready to compete for years, along with a healthy salary cap for the rest of Allen's prime.

I'm in the minority here. The draft is absolutely stacked at defensive line, and Beane could find two quality starters and still have his second second-round pick to choose a quality cornerback. Sign Slayton or Brown, spend the rest of your picks on depth, especially at safety, and the Bills return faster, younger, and deeper, well positioned for the rest of the Allen era, with all future picks in hand and in a good position to extend Cook, Benford, and Rousseau. The last time the draft and the Bills needs aligned so perfectly, Beane traded is first and fourth for Diggs, leaving Justin Jefferson, Brandon Aiyuk, and Tee Higgins on the board. Diggs was great for awhile, but he disappeared in the playoffs, played the diva, declined quickly, and ended up forcing Beane to eat his huge salary. Von Miller was his second huge risk, and that blew up in his face even worse. Beane brags about not being afraid to swing for the fences, but when he does, he falls on his face. My hope is that the Browns will ask too much even for Beane, and some other team will take the bait.

Thanks. I realize there's not much to choose from. Slayton seems the best of the bunch, sort of a deep-ball version of Shakir in his reliability and lack of star quality. In that sense, he'd fit right in. Brown might be the best of the bunch, but he's always injured. Plus, he's small, and McDermott evidently doesn't want a smurf. Brown... He did well in they playoffs, but there is good reason for the Commanders to let him go. Seems like you could get the same or better production out of a fourth-rounder. Do you agree with all that?

Who do you think would fit their plans? (Curious.)

Their valuations ticking up is one thing (led by a few headline anomalies like this one), their going way up is another. Very good running backs are too common and their shelf life is too short for the position to go the way of wide receivers. But I agree they'll be getting a significant bump.

Remind me: How well do combine visits with Bills correspond to drafting these players?

Right. And I suspect he was a headache precisely because he knew he was declining, at least at some level, and wasn't taking it well. Doesn't reflect very well on him, nor does how well Allen performed once he was relieved of him. Makes me wonder anew how it would have turned out if Beane had drafted Jefferson instead of trading for Diggs. That trade has been universally praised, including by this board, and stats support the acclaim. But in still more hindsight, it doesn't look as good. Diggs routinely disappeared in the playoffs when the team needed him most, and he ended up such a distraction that Beane was pretty much forced to pay him a huge salary just to leave. Of course, if Beane had kept the pick, given his track record he probably would have traded up for Jalen Reagor. 😒

Good question. Before you talk about spoiled players and fleeced blue-collar fans, check out the profits the owners are making. Terry either has or could afford dozens of these yachts, and thousands of first-class airline tickets. But why should he pony up for the players doing the actual work he's profiting from? It's the same old story: the guy owns the whatever (team, network, online behemoth), therefore it's fine for him to cash in, hoard, exploit, and squeeze as much as he can. Point out how morally corrupt this arrangement is, how illogical and ultimately self defeating, and the brainwashed mob, none of them wealthy, bleat, in unison, "Socialist!" as if they knew what that term means or it represented the only alternative to bottomless greed. So many sheep in this country, all happy to do the bidding of the billionaires stealing from them. Watch reactions to this post for prime examples. Let the bleating begin in three, two one...

That will be the epitaph on his gravestone.

When Beane trades up, watch out. He traded up for Edmunds in 2018, up for Cody Ford in 2020, up for Elam in 2021, and up for Kincaid in 2022. Not exactly an all-star lineup. Plus, who knows if he would have hit, if only by chance, on all those picks he surrendered to trade up. No GM hits on everything, and they all have picks that are howlers. But for whatever reason, Beane tends to do worse than his top peers in the early rounds and better in the later ones. Given this, maybe he should be looking to trade way down, like into the third and fourth rounds, when he may tend to rely on the judgment of his experts instead of his own and McDermott's.