If building through the draft backfire how do you recover?

[Big Blitz]

 

Aren't you always building through the draft? I mean don't draft TJ Graham over Russell Wilson or Marcel Dareus over JJ Watt, Tyron Smith, AJ Green, and Julio Jones. Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

 

 

 

What the hell are you tapatalking about? MMQB much?

"If building through the draft backfires...."

 

 

 

You're always building through the draft. Don't make bad picks, duh. A monkey could have thrown darts at the list of hall of famers in the 2011 draft and we got a clown that has problems telling time.

 

Sent from my SM-G928V using Tapatalk

 

 

[Dragonborn10]

You don't build through the draft. That is all BS. It is GM speak to make themselves more important than they are. The draft is a total lottery. No one is any better at it than anyone else. Whaley's biggest fault was giving away picks. The more picks you have the more chances you have to draft good players

 

The only position that matters is QB. Green Bay lucked out and had the guts to take Rodgers with Favre still on the team. Pats lucked out with Brady. Niners traded for Steve Young. Packers traded for Favre. Seahawks got a great one in the third round. New Orleans signed a HOF QB in FA. Cardinals just saw their former QB make the HOF, again signed in Free Agency.

 

It is not the draft. The draft is great entertainment but it is not the answer to building a team.

 

The ONLY answer is to find a franchise QB by any means necessary. Then find all the other parts in any manner you choose - draft, cheap FA, expensive FA, re-sign your own draft picks, trade, and waiver wire. There are HOF players and Wall of fame players that have been acquired by all these methods.

[Marty McFly]

The beane team isbt making splashy moves in FA they live n die by the draft they have to be good at scouting

[QCity]

You don't build through the draft. That is all BS. It is GM speak to make themselves more important than they are.

 

It is not the draft. The draft is great entertainment but it is not the answer to building a team.

 

 

 

This is completely incorrect. It isn't GM speak or a buzz phrase. It's a team building approach that is still wildly misunderstood by this fanbase.

 

Everything may revolve around the QB, but you still need to build a team around him. The Saints are a great, shining example on how to waste the career of a HOF QB. Trying to find a franchise QB in FA is a huge longshot. This isn't the 80s, 90s, or even the early 2000s. Our next franchise QB is going to have to come through the draft, and it's better to have 10 picks going into April than it is to have 6.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

The beane team isbt making splashy moves in FA they live n die by the draft they have to be good at scouting

 

...19 out of 22 STARTERS on the Steelers 2009 SB team were acquired via the draft.....SIX Lombardis on the shelf......

[oldmanfan]

Sustained success relies on effective drafting. Always has been, always will be.

[KellyToughII]

Get new scouts?

Which we did this offseason correct? And new Front office personnel ( two I think were in the running for the GM Gig?). I want THIS STAFF with THIS Set of scouts to have the highest draft picks possible and as many as possible.

 

Oh and to the OP, you are screwed, you know like Buffalo has been for 17 years with crappy drafts...so...

[Saxum]

If, after what Beane has done this offseason (which I love, by the way), they don't draft well ... this team is screwed for a long, long time.

 

If team is the team steps in a gungy the good news is we will be picking at top of draft making the 0-16 fans happy.

[mead107]

I'm asking because I do believe this is a bold way to go. Eventually this will be a very young inexperienced team with a few veterans here and there.

The questions I have are, will the fanbase be patient enough after a 17 to 18yr drought?

Can you attract veterans with such a young team that's inexperienced?

The one that really worries me is what if these picks don't pan out? How do you recover?

I really want to understand and believe in the process. I just feel like it's like gambling your last bit of money away.

Let's see how the season plays out.

99% of all football players are drafted. Rest are walk ons

[Augie]

Let's see how the season plays out.

99% of all football players are drafted. Rest are walk ons

I like the simplicity here.

 

Keep drafting, and do it well.

 

We are not one player away, so big splashes in FA are futile, but role players will be found.

 

(I was worried the answer was to sell to a London investor and go live on a deserted island.)

[Dragonborn10]

 

This is completely incorrect. It isn't GM speak or a buzz phrase. It's a team building approach that is still wildly misunderstood by this fanbase.

 

Everything may revolve around the QB, but you still need to build a team around him. The Saints are a great, shining example on how to waste the career of a HOF QB. Trying to find a franchise QB in FA is a huge longshot. This isn't the 80s, 90s, or even the early 2000s. Our next franchise QB is going to have to come through the draft, and it's better to have 10 picks going into April than it is to have 6.

Actually I'm entirely correct. Half your post proves my points.

The Saints won a SB with a FA QB. Not sure how that was a waste?

And yes it is better to have more picks. That is what I said. It is more lottery than science. They wasted four picks on Ragland.

There are multiple means to build a team. Belichick did it via FA and trades. Seahawks have done it through the draft. Denver made two SB's with a FA QB and good draft choices.

Further, let's just look at it from a numbers standpoint. 7 picks a year for four years (average NFL career being just 3.3 years) is only 28 players or little more than half a team. Even if your top three picks were starters every year for four years in a row (which likely has never happened) that would be 12 players. Barely enough for one side of the ball.

So the draft is just one tactic in building a team. It is a very good one if done correctly especially in a salary cap league. Teams need good young but more importantly cheap talent. But there are multiple tactics used to build a team. Perhaps the best player the Bills have signed in the last 20 years was an UDFA TE that will be a borderline HOF LT.

 

And lastly, Brady is the proof that the draft means nothing. The Patriots had no clue Brady was to become the greatest of all time. If they had any idea he was even going to be a competent back-up they would have taken him three rounds earlier. If you said, draft a QB every year, I would have no problem with that strategy. Just trade down at least once per year and take a flyer on a QB every year until you find one.

[John from Riverside]

Im trying to figure out what the alternative is?

 

Look what we have done and where we are going......this team is about to make a bold QB draft choice move.....they are picking THEIR guys and shedding salary...the writing is on the wall

[BuffaloBillsGospel]

I'm asking because I do believe this is a bold way to go. Eventually this will be a very young inexperienced team with a few veterans here and there.

 

The questions I have are, will the fanbase be patient enough after a 17 to 18yr drought?

 

Can you attract veterans with such a young team that's inexperienced?

 

The one that really worries me is what if these picks don't pan out? How do you recover?

 

I really want to understand and believe in the process. I just feel like it's like gambling your last bit of money away.

 

We will be mediocre forever unless we get a QB who can win by throwing the football and not just with his legs. The only ways to do that are through the draft, free agency and trades... Usually if there's a franchise QB then there is no way he's on the market, free agents get to pick where they want to go (is this a realistic destination? no, imo), so that leaves the draft, this is said to be a really good crop of quarterbacks that could be coming out so it's no wonder the Bills are stacking up for this draft in particular. Once we get the QB the pieces will start falling into place naturally, we won't need a Sammy Watkins because our QB will turn the Jordy Nelsons/Reggie Cobbs into star players in the 2nd-4th round.

 

If we miss, it's going to much more of the same, rinse, repeat but we can't just sit back and expect to win a SB with Tyrod Taylor, it can happen but you'd need a record setting defense along with a QB who doesn't turn the ball over much, solid run game and usually those teams are a 1 and done SB team.... Bucs/Ravens etc.

[Gugny]

 

If team is the team steps in a gungy the good news is we will be picking at top of draft making the 0-16 fans happy.

 

If this made any sense ... any, whatsoever ... there's a small chance it could have been funny.

[baskingridgebillsfan]

if you blow a few drafts you set the team back years. With the cap and hopefully one day having to pay a qb 25 million because he is worth it you simply need starters to come out of the first three rounds every year.

[TPS]

I'm asking because I do believe this is a bold way to go. Eventually this will be a very young inexperienced team with a few veterans here and there.

The questions I have are, will the fanbase be patient enough after a 17 to 18yr drought?

Can you attract veterans with such a young team that's inexperienced?

The one that really worries me is what if these picks don't pan out? How do you recover?

I really want to understand and believe in the process. I just feel like it's like gambling your last bit of money away.

it might be wise to wait and see how this season unfolds before you start worrying about those things...

[Bleeding Bills Blue]

if you blow a few drafts you set the team back years. With the cap and hopefully one day having to pay a qb 25 million because he is worth it you simply need starters to come out of the first three rounds every year.

I think the goal would be to be able to draft best player available at least, occasionally. Not to need a pass rusher or corner because players left.

[TheElectricCompany]

I think the goal would be to be able to draft best player available at least, occasionally. Not to need a pass rusher or corner because players left.

Another myth...

Very few teams, if any, are able to take pure BPA, which is also impossible to define based on the very different draft boards between teams.

It is always a priority to fill a key position of need.

[Simon Says]

Having 8, or 10 picks a year is better than the usual 7 picks. Let's say half the picks "make it". Get 4 or 5 contributors instead of 2 or 3. Protect yourself against injuries or busts. Most importantly, use the picks wisely, don't reach, don't gamble.

[Beast]

I guess if it doesn't work we continue with what we have been doing for the past 17 years.

Edited September 7, 2017 by Binghamton Beast