finn

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.

A billionaire owner and he doesn't pay for his players to travel first class. Saving money for a third jet? And a coaching staff that treats themselves right while the grunts sit in coach. How do they think the players will react? Who do they think they are, royalty? I didn't respect McDermott as a coach much before, now I respect him even less now. No true leader is going to pull that crap.

Either let him play out his contract and audition for other teams, meanwhile drafting and developing his replacement in a RB-rich class, or trade him and use that pick to move up into the second round for a RB who is ready to start. Use that big salary Cook wants on the many, many needs elsewhere. Plus, negotiating via social media and his me-first attitude disgusts me. If I'm Beane I snuff that out by doing anything but give Cook what he wants.

Agree that the offense was not the problem last year, although that's not because the WR was good but because the other units made up for its deficiencies. Still, a Hollywood Brown or Darius Slayton would be lovely. But I don't agree with the conventional wisdom that the Bills are thisclose and just need a big-time player to get over the hump. The turnover differential saved the season, and that's not something you can count on year after year. The truth is the defense was really quite bad. No pass rush, poor safety play, mediocre linebackers, soft against both the run and pass. No areas of strength at all, except creating turnovers. Not putrid, but not a playoff defense either. Sorry to say, but pretty much all the Bills resources need to go into the defense. Douglas can give you one more year to buy time for a talented cornerback to develop, so that can be like a fourth-round pick, but Rapp and Bishop won't get you to the Super Bowl, and Rapp will be injured most of the year. Need a top veteran back there from free agency (= $). Need a quality linebacker to back up Bernard, who is also injury prone. Another fourth rounder. Need a powerful defensive tackle and a right defensive end with juice, maybe trading one of the second round picks to move up. The rest of the picks can go to depth, and if any money is left it can go to Slayton or Brown. It CAN be done. It has been done. But, frankly, it could go the other direction, too, if Beane misses yet again and injuries pile up. A big offseason for the Bills.

One person's fear is another person's hard-won lesson. Garrett is younger than Miller, but Miller didn't cost what Garrett would cost, which is likely more than the optimistic estimates going around. How about our first round this year and next, both seconds, our second next year, plus Epenesa, Elam, and Cook? Or the next three first-round picks? Keep in mind our draft picks are less valuable than any other team's except two. And how much of the cap will Garrett's salary consume, now and the next five years? Beane doesn't need one player; he needs five: defensive end, defensive tackle, corner, safety (Bishop and Rapp are both strong safeties and both shaky), and a WR1. And that's just starters; he also needs depth. He'll need every high-round pick, all the cap room he can free up, AND a lot of luck with lower-round picks to improve this team enough to take the next step. As I've said elsewhere, Beane has done better than some GMs, not as good as others. He's not Howie Roseman or Eric DeCosta, but is he so deficient at talent evaluation that he needs to say, "Screw it, I'm all in on one player I know is good." I say he has a better shot hitting the ball with five swings than one.

You've been down this road before, Neo. You know where it goes. Garrett (Parsons, Crosby, whoever) comes in as the savior, dazzling everyone for awhile and playing up to the monstrous cost to land him, then he pops an Achilles or tears an ACL. With no depth or cap room to draw on, the Bills are reduced to starting a seventh round pick out of Wichita State at DE and relying on Oliver and Rousseau to rush the passer, supported by a thin secondary, which was not replenished by the draft or free agency, all resources, present and future, going to pay for one (one) player. But Garrett comes back in 2026! Ok, he's still hobbled. But he comes back in 2027! Sure, he's 31 and not the same player he was, and with still no cap room to pay even the ball boy, Beane is fielding a team that either paper thin or deficient (or both) at every position. But, damn, it sure was fun for those first few months! TBD exploded at the news of the signing! That's worth something, isn't it? /s

Pretty persuasive post. I think both you and the McBeane critics (including me) could be right. It's possible that both Beane and McDermott, although very good at what they do, are not excellent, and that at least some of the teams in the Allen era would have won Super Bowls if even one of them were. Still, I think you're right that tearing it all down is way too risky given how close they are. I'm reminded of that joke that has a man going the wrong way on the highway. He sees a sign that says, "You're going the wrong way! Turn back!" A little while later he sees a still more urgent sign, "TURN BACK!! WRONG WAY!!" After awhile, he sees another sign, "Well, you've come so far..."

I should do my homework and provide evidence to support my point, but I'm too busy, tired, and lazy, so I'll just say that my impression is that Allen is keeping us in these playoff games against KC despite McDermott's failure to slow down the KC offense. And Allen is going against a tough, well-coached defense, while Mahomes is going against a sieve. Allen is better than Mahomes, so he keeps up and the score is close, as you say, but it's not close because McDermott is doing his part. He's not. (I agree about the refs, by the way. Even someone as talented as Allen can't overcome a tough defense, his own coach, AND the refs.)

It might just appear that their D beats our O in high leverage situations because our D folds like a tent and our O has to bail them out. Put it this way: The Bills offense would utterly destroy the Bills defense, while the KC offense would be crushed by the KC defense. Who can spot the weak unit here?

Isolating the problem still more, do you agree it's not the KC defense, which, while excellent and well coached, is not too much for Allen to handle, and it IS the KC offense? If so, why did Mahomes and Reid have trouble this year with virtually every defense they faced--except the Bills defense? Others have laid out the case in more detail, but it seems McDermott is always surprised by KC in the playoffs. In the game last month, he and Babich had no answer for Mahomes' scrambling, were caught flat footed by Bedford's injury, and hadn't prepared the team to play man when they needed to. Meanwhile, on the other side of the ball, Spagnola WAS ready for the Bills offense, shutting down the tush push and preparing exotic blitzes for just the right time. Even so, Allen overcame them (until Kincaid dropped the ball a la Diggs 2023). If McDermott had done his part, the Bills would likely have won. But he never does do his part, does he? Not when it comes to KC. I'm starting to wonder if it's psychological. It's like he reverts to junior assistant or little brother mode when he faces Reid, his onetime mentor. Put it this way: If, just before the Bills meet KC in the playoffs next year, McDermott got the flu and couldn't make the game and Brady or Babich took over, wouldn't you breathe a sigh of relief? I know I would.

I didn't mean to imply he can't play. I picked him as an example of an average quarterback because, if you look at the starting QBs in 2026 (putting aside the injury replacements), Tua is just about in the middle, at least in term of how most sites (and fans, maybe) rank them. The 15 ahead of him, arguably: Allen, Burrow, Jackson, Mahomes, Daniels, Goff, Darnold, Mayfield, Herbert, Love, Hurts, Stafford, Stroud, Murray, and Wilson. You could put him higher, but I don't think he's anything close to elite level. Good enough to be an asset at times, but not good enough to take a mediocre team like the Bills (sans Allen) to the playoffs. Some things are obvious only when they're pointed out. And it seems obvious to me now that while Beane and McDermott are very good at what they do, neither of them are among the best in the league, and that--not injuries, not bad luck--is why the Bills keep falling short, even with the best quarterback in the league.

The facts speak for themselves: Allen has been carrying a deeply mediocre team. Replace him with, say, Tua, and you have just another 8-9 team that misses the playoffs. Alternatively, put him on any other 2024 playoff team and he wins the Super Bowl. Beane and McDermott are wasting a generational talent in front of our eyes.

I admit that I feel like a seasoned expert after reading a few scouting profiles and watching player highlights on YouTube. On draft day, I'm outraged--scandalized!--that Beane would ignore my favorites for some player my sources say will be a dub. (Then I proceed to ignore the favorites who turn into busts and remember only that I wanted the Creed Humphreys over the Boogie Bashams.)

I teach students this age, and I'm here to tell you, most of them are not ready, mentally or emotionally, for anything more rigorous that an entry-level job in their chosen field. Thinking of them thrown into an arena with grown men hardened by years of grueling competition, and expected to perform under the klieg lights of intense national scrutiny, makes me wince. They would be chewed up, spat out, and left whimpering in the dirt. College seniors and rookies may look like NFL players, and some of them have the requisite physical abilities, but it takes a lot more than that to survive in the NFL, let alone thrive, from what I can see. You need a supportive environment that gives you time and training to adjust to the crazy speed, power, and sheer violence in the NFL. But you also need maturity and character. How do you handle adversity, especially injuries? How do you deal with the obscene amount of money dumped on you, and the way it changes the relationships with your friends and family? What do you do when you whiff a block, drop a critical pass, get knocked down, and everyone says you suck? No wonder it's hard for Beane to hit on draft picks. Maybe Boogie Basham and Elam are good enough, physically, to be elite players but don't have or didn't get everything else they needed to succeed.

I thought Beane and McDermott put all their efforts into building a defense specifically to beat KC. Ironically, they managed to build one that KC found much, much easier to beat than either Houston or Philly.

Xavier Watt looks like he'll be a star. I'll take exceptional instincts and ball skills in a safety above speed and even tackling. We need more than just hitters back there.

What do you make of the point that he's had to rush from the defensive right side, not his strong suit, because they have Miller rushing from the left? If this is the case, it might be better at this point to put him back into his natural position and either let Miller go or serve as depth only. Also, it hasn't helped Rousseau to have Epenesa on the other side. Pair him with an explosive rusher and maybe we'll see more than 5 sacks a year from him.

If he's going to ever do it, this would be the year, with 50 DL in Brugler's top 100 prospects. If I'm Beane, I go DL for two of the first two picks, CB for the third pick (still in the second round), then secondary depth as the next priority. Resign Amari, let Cook play out his contract, extend Rousseau, Shakir, Benford, Bernard. In other words, keep your own and build through the draft.

Long thread, so maybe someone else made this point already, but why would Beane extend Cook if he doesn't have to, given the other priorities and tight cap space? Especially with this bogus, pouting stunt? I hope Beane will do the smart thing: say nothing, let him play out his contract, and either extend him then or say goodbye, sending the message that you don't negotiate with the Bills via social media. Meanwhile, Cook will have all the incentive to turn in a stellar year since he's auditioning for a big contract from someone. Me, I hate this kind of posturing so much, I would deliberately try to extend everyone but Cook: Rousseau, Bernard, Shakir, Benford. Reward performance and a team-first attitude these players have displayed, and signal to Cook that he needs a new agent (and brother).

I have enough to deal with reading sophomoric replies like this, dude.

In this thread about the 2024 draft, people keep saying you can't judge a draft until it's three years out. So let's look at the 2022 Bills draft: 1. Kaiir Elam 2. James Cook 3. Terrel Bernard 4. (Traded to move up for Elam) 5. Khalil Shakir 6. Matt Araiza 6. Christian Benford 6. Luke Tenuta 7. Baylon Spector Elam is shaping up to be one of the bigger busts in Bills history. Cook, Shakir, and Benford are home runs for where they were taken. Bernard is an adequate starter who can be a playmaker at times but also disappears for whole games. Araiza is KC's meh punter. Tenuta has been a waiver-wire guy. Spector is not good, but at least he was never cut. Would have been an A+ draft if he had hit on the first-round pick (e.g. if he had traded up for McDuffie before KC beat him to it). Otherwise, it's the Cook-Bernard-Shakir-Benford draft. Four very good starters, but no blue chippers. Better than 2021's Rousseau-Brown-Hamlin draft and arguably on par with 2020, when he traded his number one for Diggs and picked up Epenesa, Zach Moss, Gabe Davis, Bass, and Dane Jackson. Easy to spot the trend: Allen is the only blue-chip player Beane has drafted, Diggs the only free agent blue chip player (aside from 8 games from Von Miller). Good enough to be a runner up year after year after year.