Did we land a top 5 GM in Beane?

[yungmack]

Hold off until after year 5.

[BillsfanAZ]

I will say Beane has drawn up some nice plans, cleared the land, and has laid a good foundation.....lets wait until the thing is built to see how it performs. 

[ghostwriter]

Jury is out but I think so. Could be wrong. We'll see what happens.

[ColoradoBills]

55 minutes ago, HOUSE said:

Blemishes

 

Should have given Nathan Peterman 2 more years

 

Screwed with Richie Incognito's mind

 

Practically gave away AJ McCaron to Oakland (5th rounder)

 

Should have extended Vladimir Ducasse

 

Also, dumped Kelvin Benjamin just because he dropped a few lousy passes

 

 

[foreboding]

Hard to say top 5 yet. But his moves and shrewd dealings, ability to communicate, work with his coach and defend our town is encouraging! Wins must happen for a top ranking.

[Logic]

1 hour ago, Magox said:

Obviously it's too early to tell.  With that said, I would like to give a few grades in a few areas that I view as pivotal in determining success from a GM standpoint:

 

Organization

From my view, in order for you to be a successful GM you have to have an organized approach to how you conduct your affairs.  From everything that I have read and observed over the past couple years, Beane is extremely meticulous, calculating and organized in how he approaches this football team.   He methodically structures contracts in a certain manner that allows him flexibility to retain or dump them based on player performance.  Unlike what another poster earlier mentioned, anyone cannot just cut players to dump salary space and remain competitive.  The fact that he was able to clear lots of cap space and shed talent along the way that were unpopular in some corners of Bills fans to still be able to compete and have full confidence of the players and the organization and a very very hopeful Bills fanbase is a testament to his competence.  

Grade:  A

 

Vision

What I have observed, there is a clear concise vision on how Beane wants to construct this team.  There are many fans who simply do not understand the concept of "culture" and "process".  These fans for the most part I would venture to guess have never been a part of an organization or program that has had enduring success.  I don't want to come off as some know-it-all but I have come from a sports program that has been successful for 3 decades now.  And we clearly had a culture and there clearly was a process and method to how this program maintains its elite level status.   

 

Beane, knows what sort of players he wants.  He has said that they want to build a "Bully" for the offensive line.  They clearly are attempting to do that.  Beane said his number one priority was to get a franchise QB.  He made lots of shrewd trades and did everything possible within reason to get his guy, and sure enough in his first draft at the helm he got his guy.   Beane has intimated that they don't want certain sort of character type of players and he has gotten rid of players with these character issues.  They were very unpopular decisions but it wasn't just the character he was looking at, he also looked at their production.  It's one thing to have a guy with some character issues that is playing at a pro bowl level, it's another to have an over priced character issue player that is not playing up to their capabilities.  

 

Most importantly, he was able to sell his vision to ownership.  This is something that most people don't understand how valuable and key that is to being successful in management.  If you are a manger who doesn't have the full confidence of ownership to carry out your plan, then guess what?  That means you don't have the resources necessary to carry out your vision of plans.   Whaley, right or wrong was not able to sell his vision to the Pegulas and basically was a hobbled GM who basically was the head talent evaluator of the team.   Beane has full confidence of the Pegulas, therefore he and McD have basically full control of the team.

 

Grade: A

 

Surrounding yourself with Talent:

As soon as Beane was hired he was able to poach high level scouting talent.  Brian Gaine has gone on to be GM of the Texans and now Beane was able to poach Dan Morgan from the Seahawks who many believe is a surefire future GM.   There are others as well.   

 

Grade: A

 

Talent Evaluations:

This is arguably the most important trait.   Its early on now to make a full evaluation on this but it's so far been decent with a few misses.  KB was a miss, Star is over priced for his role and Murphy is ok but is often-injured.  But they certainly got some good players in the draft last year, the biggest one of them all is Josh Allen, Tremaine, Harrison Phillips, Taron and Foster.   And now that they finally have money, they have some promising players that should help the offense.  But they have to play the game before we make that evaluation and even though Allen, Edmunds, Foster etc have shown promise there is more that needs to be seen.

 

Grade: Incomplete

Good post. And I won't agree that "incomplete" is the logical final grade. But with an "A" in all the major categories you explained, I'd say the grade is trending toward...well....an "A"!

[Mrbojanglezs]

I like what I see so far. I liked Whaley too, but you can definitely tell he is more competent than Doug.

 

Let's see how this draft goes. 

[Rico]

Yeah, it’s way too early to say he’s top 5, but he’s light years better than the blithering idiot he replaced. 

[corta765]

2 hours ago, ProcessAccepted said:

There is a huge difference between Whaley and Beane. There is no chitter chatter leaking about Beane and internal power struggles. Those rumors were frequently during both Marrone and Ryan's time as HC. Beane seems to be a good communicator and knows how to get buy-in. 

 

As the OP pointed out Beane has purged bad contracts and freed up a lot of cash. He also hasn't just gone and spent it all because he had it like previous GM's have done but yet we've a completely revamped OL and WR corp.

 

If Beane isn't top 5 can someone list the Top 5 Current GMs for me then.

 

True but remember Whaley never really had a say with the HC. McD and Beane were close before he was even hired which makes things smoother whereas Whaley had Marrone and Rex's big ego's to deal with. Additionally its hard to know what role Russ Brandon played in that power struggle. At the time people would've freaked if Dareus was not resigned that had to be done and Mario was at the height of his popularity because he was producing. My point just is after two seasons which were an identical 6-10 and 9-7, Whaley's 2015 offseason was viewed as a success big time by most Bills fans and media. He was credited for potentially building a good team. I don't disagree Beane is farrr more calculating with a stronger plan and communication skills, but the goal is to put out the best possible roster and heading into the opening of 2015 Whaley was credited for the amount of talent that team had amassed. Skill position wise the WR corp and RB corp in 15 is superior to what we currently have even though it has been upgraded.

Edited April 4, 2019 by corta765

[hjnick]

2 hours ago, Ethan in Portland said:

TBD

He created the salary cap dead money issue. He threw away 2018 season and dismantled first playoff team in 17 years

He is partially complicit in the QB situation to start 2018.

His first FA class was terrible

The best player on the team was chosen by McD/Whaley

I love Allen and Beane's fate is sealed with him 

 

Interesting take.

 

I don't think Beane, in his grand plan, was planning on trying to make the playoffs that year.  Of course, he'll take it, but he knew the roster needed to be blown up.

 

If you are going to purge players/salary, he got a lot of value out of some of them so we could even have a shot at Josh.

Also, why stretch the dead money over years instead of just taking a 1 year hit and get rid of all the dead money in one shot.

 

We have made it thru, now let's see how he does.

[eball]

2 minutes ago, Rico said:

Yeah, it’s way too early to say he’s top 5, but he’s light years better than the blithering idiot he replaced. 

 

Whaley was a victim of the Peter Principle...was hired into a job one step further than what he was qualified for.  Good scout and talent evaluator -- horrible team builder and salary cap manager.

 

I think Beane clearly isn't as experienced as a scout but he knows that and has surrounded himself with those people.  He appears, at this early stage, to be quite proficient at the team building and salary cap management aspects of the job -- and the dude seems to know how to maneuver his way around a draft board!

[PlayoffsPlease]

If we finish as one of the top 5 teams, then I will say yes. 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

2 hours ago, Chuck Wagon said:

Anyone can tear something down.  If that's the criteria you want, Sashi Brown did a WAY better job than Beane.  This is putting the cart before the horse, there's still a decent chance JA flames out dramatically and Beane is more remembered as being associated with trading Mahomes only to give up a bunch of picks to get Josh Allen.

 

yup he called up from the Panthers war room and suggested the Bills trade down with KC thus passing on Mahomes

Edited April 4, 2019 by Ed_Formerly_of_Roch

[Shaw66]

Magox

 

That's an outstanding analysis.  I think it's on the money.  Nicely done. 

 

 

[Marv's Neighbor]

So far, so good!

[John from Riverside]

3 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

 

The ability to try and make a trade for AB and then get turned down just can't be taught. ?

 

Make bad personnel decisions and then move on.... the talent just radiates from him.

 

 

15-17 record so far here....top 5? Best GM in the league for sure.??

The wins do need to come before a top 5 gm claim can be made......

 

but the rest of your post is complete bs

[MacGyver]

I think I want to see some winning first before he is lauded as a top 5 GM.

Edited April 4, 2019 by MacGyver

[C.Biscuit97]

He has the same exact record as Doug Whaley after 2 years.  Would anyone take the current roster over the 2015 one?  

 

Im happy people are optimistic.  That’s awesome.  But this is kinda nuts.  We had the second worst offense in the nfl last year.  We started Nathan Peterman.  They gave up picks for Benjamin who was a fat slob when they had him in Carolina.  Our receivers were a joke last year.  

 

Again, it’s all on Allen.  If he turns into a franchise qb, Beane (and McDermott) will be remembered fondly. If not, he will just be another failed GM. 

[billsfan_34]

4 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

 

The ability to try and make a trade for AB and then get turned down just can't be taught. ?

 

Make bad personnel decisions and then move on.... the talent just radiates from him.

 

 

15-17 record so far here....top 5? Best GM in the league for sure.??

Beane inherited a mess - simply saying 15-17 really isnt looking at the bigger picture of things. 

3 minutes ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

He has the same exact record as Doug Whaley after 2 years.  Would anyone take the current roster over the 2015 one?  

 

Im happy people are optimistic.  That’s awesome.  But this is kinda nuts.  We had the second worst offense in the nfl last year.  We started Nathan Peterman.  They gave up picks for Benjamin who was a fat slob when they had him in Carolina.  Our receivers were a joke last year.  

 

Again, it’s all on Allen.  If he turns into a franchise qb, Beane (and McDermott) will be remembered fondly. If not, he will just be another failed GM. 

Agreed- everything falls on Allen being “the guy”. I would much rather have Beane than Whaley. IMO whaley was a yes man and also couldnt keep Brandons hands out of the cookie jar.

[Freddie's Dead]

Too early to tell, so....