Rate our 1st round...

[Logic]

Josh Allen: C-

I did not want Allen to be a Buffalo Bill. I really, really didn't. Of the top 4 QBs, he was the one I LEAST wanted to see get drafted by Buffalo. That being said, Mayfield was taken 1st overall, the Giants were not gonna give up pick #2 for anything less than a king's ransom, and the Jets obviously weren't going to trade their pick to the Bills. That left Josh Allen or Josh Rosen for the Bills. To me, this decision came down to work ethic, character, personality, and upside. The Bills decided that Allen's was greater than Rosen's. I don't personally agree, but time will tell. It's important to remember, though, that Mayfield and Darnold weren't really options. So it's Allen vs Rosen. That's what it comes down to. The picks are also a big part of the grade. To still keep their second 1st round pick AND keep next year's 1st round pick was pretty awesome. For that reason, and for Allen's obvious physical gifts and upside, I'm tempted to move the pick up to a C or even C+. But at the end of the day, the ghosts of JP Losman and EJ Manuel are still haunting me, and I'm terrified that Allen will be a big bust. Also, I really, REALLY wish the Bills still had a 2nd round pick to use tomorrow. For those reasons, I can go no higher than a C-.


Tremaine Edmunds: A

I did not in my wildest dreams think the Bills could land Edmunds even at 12, let alone with their second 1st round pick after ALSO landing a quarterback. They got arguably a top 5 talent at pick 16. He will be the day one starter ("right off the bus" , as Doug Whaley would say) at either MIKE or SAM linebacker. He has sideline-to-sideline speed, elite coverage ability for a linebacker, and untapped puss rushing ability to boot. He's also apparently a hard worker and locker room leader. He will elevate McDermott's defense TREMENDOUSLY. He will quarterback the defense for McDermott an will add playmaking ability to a linebacker corps that direly needs it. And oh, did I mention they got this guy at PICK 16?! The ONLY two reasons this isn't an "A+" for me is that they had to give up the 1st pick in the 3rd round in order to get Edmunds. That was a premium pick. Also, Edmunds is only 19, and drafting a player that young makes me nervous. He has amazing BOOM potential, but like our other 1st round pick, he also has BUST potential.


Round 1 Overall Grade: B-
If you strip away your own personal preferences and look at this draft in terms of team needs and how those needs were addressed, this is the conclusion: The two biggest needs on the Bills roster BY FAR were quarterback and inside linebacker. They needed someone to lead the offense AND someone to lead the defense. In order to address these needs, the Bills chose the highest upside, highest PURE PHYSICAL TALENT prospects in the entire draft at both positions. If these picks hit, they will transform both the offense and defense for a decade+. But it's not a sure thing. Both Allen and Edmunds have enormous BOOM or BUST potential. I have to say this about Beane and McDermott, and I've said it since they got to Buffalo: They have brass balls. They are not the LEAST BIT afraid of failure. If they have a conviction on something, they're going to see it through, REGARDLESS of what anyone thinks. These two picks just continue that theme. If Allen reaches his potential, he'll be the best quarterback of this class. If he doesn't, he'll wash out of the NFL entirely. That's a big risk to take in your VERY FIRST DRAFT as GM. Likewise with Edmunds. Boom or bust. At the end of the day, Beane and McDermott are incredibly meticulous men. They do not seem to do ANYTHING without first doing an almost absurd amount of research and preparation. That being the case, if they are willing to stake their Bills careers on Josh Allen and Tremaine Edmunds, then all I can do is sit back, shake my head, and hope they're right. I admire their courage. I hope their ability to scout players matches their courage. This is a make-or-break draft, as early in their tenure as it may be. Time will tell.

[BullBuchanan]

D+ We traded 5 top 56 picks for a QB that has no skills outside of a big arm and a 19 year old LB prospect. Beane is a guy that loves measurables it seems, and there's a graveyard of NFL GM's that fell in love with Jeff George, JaMarcus Russel, and Brian Bosworth's of years past. The linebacker had a good year, and probably stands a reasonable shot to be decent. Allen on the other hand, it doesn't even feel fair to call him a bust candidate. He's a 4th round talent that became a darling.

[Elite Poster]

C

[Murdox]

15 minutes ago, Adam727 said:

AND we overpaid on the trade up by a Mile.  It cost us 2 2nds to move up from 12 to 7, but only cost the Cardinals a 3rd and a 5th to move up from 15 to 10 for Rosen. 

 

 

We had competition at 7.  I thought that was rather obvious.  That's why we overpaid.  Likely the Cards and maybe even another team were trying to snag that pick because the Bucs were clearly trying to trade down.  We knew who we wanted and were worried someone else would get him.

Edited April 27, 2018 by Murdox

[The_Dude]

49 minutes ago, mead107 said:

Seriously? 

 

A 

 

Theres insufficent evidence to believe Allen was worth taking let alone trading for ESPECIALLY since Rosen was there. So yeah. Seriously. For serious. For reals. 

[Floydboy12]

We got the highest upside QB in the draft who is also the most intelligent. And our QB of the defense for the next 8-9 years. Don't see how it could be anything but an A. Now draft some solid lineman and a wideout and we're golden. 

[Greywolf]

Solid D on the Allen pick. Another tall QB who overthrows and underthrows open receivers. Not what we need after years of EJ.

 

Solid A on Edmunds. He will be a great player.

 

But, I'm super disappointed in the Allen pick. He has bust potential written all over him. He's not sitting behind a good QB learning for a year or two and the temptation is going to be to force him onto the field before he's ready if McCarron doesn't pan out, pretty much exactly how the Bills ruined EJ.

[mead107]

29 minutes ago, The_Dude said:

 

Theres insufficent evidence to believe Allen was worth taking let alone trading for ESPECIALLY since Rosen was there. So yeah. Seriously. For serious. For reals. 

He looks like a wimp. One concussion away from being out of football.  Glad we did not take him. 

(Allen big strong) 

three years and we will know if he is the real deal 

[BruceSlayne]

I honestly think we could of got both Allen and Edmunds at 12 and 22. Now we have to wait 63 picks just to  address our O-line with lower caliber players. Unless the trading frenzy continues I am disappointed with how we got our guys.

[NewEraBills]

I'll give it a B for now.  Allen I'm just not happy about it.  He might turn out to be OK, but it just seems like a major uphill climb.  Edmunds has nice athleticism and we'll see how he fits in the defense.  I'll be excited to see what we do in round 3.  Would like James Washington or Miller from  Memphis and an Offensive Tackle.

[maryland-bills-fan]

Nothing for the offensive line. 2018-2019 is going to be interesting.

[Bob in STL]

I prefer to wait until the play a few years but I say A for now. 

 

1. They got aggressive and moved up to take Allen. Like him or not the Bills think he is a franchise qb and they went out and got him.  Had they stayed at 12 Arizona would had got him and Rosen would have fallen to Miami. If that happened this place would have exploded.  To get Allen and keep 22 was excellent. 

 

2. Edwards is much more of a sure thing.  He will start from day 1.  

[BullBuchanan]

2 minutes ago, Bob in STL said:

I prefer to wait until the play a few years but I say A for now. 

 

1. They got aggressive and moved up to take Allen. Like him or not the Bills think he is a franchise qb and they went out and got him.  Had they stayed at 12 Arizona would had got him and Rosen would have fallen to Miami. If that happened this place would have exploded.  To get Allen and keep 22 was excellent. 

 

2. Edwards is much more of a sure thing.  He will start from day 1.  

 

You seriously think Arizona would have taken Allen? I don't see them being so desperate to trade up to get their last choice. Rosen was the pick all along. Makes it that much more nauseating.

[The_Dude]

32 minutes ago, mead107 said:

He looks like a wimp. One concussion away from being out of football.  Glad we did not take him. 

(Allen big strong) 

three years and we will know if he is the real deal 

 

Yeah, because Rosen has like the same build as that Aaron Rogers guy. Great point. Our big strong man who can’t read the field is clearly superior. 

[MarlinTheMagician]

Allen - A

 

Edmunds - A+

[mead107]

11 minutes ago, The_Dude said:

 

Yeah, because Rosen has like the same build as that Aaron Rogers guy. Great point. Our big strong man who can’t read the field is clearly superior. 

Nobody, not even you know if Rosen will succeed 

Nobody,not even you know if Allen will succeed 

 

time will tell.  

 

If you know so much you should be working for the Bills.  

Edited April 27, 2018 by mead107

[paulbills]

all of the capital we just stockpiled was depleted in one day for two players, not a good feeling. 

[Ol Dirty B]

1 minute ago, mead107 said:

Know one, not even you know if Rosen will succeed 

know one , not even you know if Allen will succeed 

 

time will tell.  

 

If you know so much you should be working for the Bills.  

 Know one, not even you, knows how no one is properly spelled.

[Bob in STL]

1 hour ago, Adam727 said:

F+

 

I tried to brace myself for the Bills picking Allen over Rosen but it still stung.  What's worse is that Beane thought Allen was at least  3 day 2 picks better than Rosen, which is the minimum of what Beane must have been offering when they started trying to trade up to pick 4 or 5.  This has me questioning Beane as a GM if he's willing to spend that much draft capital just to not run the risk of winding up with Rosen over Allen.  

 

We also ended up drafting the player that virtually everyone had mocked to the Bills.  The player we have been hearing rumors about for weeks being the Bills trade up target at 5, 6, or 7.  The fact that this is EXACTLY what happened has me wondering how/why the front office made their plans so public.  They seem worse at keeping things private and in-house than Rex/Whaley. The way the draft fell, if everyone didn't know how badly the Bills wanted Allen he likely would have dropped right to the Bills at 12.  Allen at 12 would still have not been my first choice, but it would have been better than Allen at 7. 

 

AND we overpaid on the trade up by a Mile.  It cost us 2 2nds to move up from 12 to 7, but only cost the Cardinals a 3rd and a 5th to move up from 15 to 10 for Rosen. 

 

AND we have a project QB again.  So if Allen's size doesn't suddenly make him accurate or able to read defenses at the next level and he becomes the next Bills QB to bust, we will likely miss on additional franchise QBs in 2019 and 2020 while we are waiting to see what we have in Allen.  

 

It's nice that we came away from the 1st round with a LB addressing a position of need (hence the + in F+), but the fact that we traded the pick we got for TT to move up and get a LB at 16 when he or someone similarly talented were probably going to be there at 22 makes that less exciting too.  Beane first seems too willing to give away top tier established talent for draft picks, and then is too willing to give away those draft picks away on draft day.  (The same way he's willing to get rid of players like Glenn/Watkins/Dareus for cap reasons but then is ok paying above market prices for players like Star & Chris Ivory.)  Trading up for a LB (a position that is arguably the easiest position to find in Free Agency, where we just let the leading tackler in the NFL go to a division rival on a 1 yr $4mil contract) makes me think Beane isn't any better than Whaley at valuing/assembling a roster.

 

I thought Beane was going to be the anti-Whaley.  (I was unsure of his ability to evaluate talent but was expecting him to be excellent at valuing/assembling a roster)  At the moment it looks like Beane is just as bad as Whaley at assembling a roster, only without Whaley's eye for evaluating talent.  

 

We blew up this roster in exchange for this draft (the picks used to draft Allen alone cost us Sammy Watkins (a #1 WR), Cordy Glenn (a franchise LT), an additional 2nd and the possibility to draft Watson/Mahomes last year. )  And all we got for our 5 picks in the top 65 was Josh Allen and a linebacker. 

 

In two years, on paper we've gone from a playoff caliber roster to a roster that on paper looks like one of the worst few teams in the NFL.  I have no faith in our new QB (though will wait with the rest of you for the next few years hoping I'm wrong) and I have no faith in our new GM.  This was by far my least favorite Bills draft ever in my 25 years following this team.  (A distinction previously held by the draft in 2004, which is the only other draft I can ever remember being upset when it was over)

 

  

 

 

 

 

Wow.  So Beane just read a few mock drafts and followed suit? 

 

Watkins would be gone anyway, Glenn would be hurt, and franchise qbs take draft capital when you make the playoffs despite having the worst roster in the league.  

 

Worst draft ever.  Were you born when they drafted Maybin, Losman, Spiller, Mcgahee?  

[mead107]

Just now, Ol Dirty B said:

 Know one, not even you, knows how no one is properly spelled.

It’s late and I’m tired