What McBeane have done since 2017 nothing short of amazing.

[Batman1876]

I'm enjoying the 2021 ride, best team in football, playing well on all sides, and fun to watch on top of it. But when I think of the job that leadership has done its really unbelievable. 

 

At the end of the 2016 season we were one of the most hopeless teams in football. Our record was 7-9 but the situation was worse. We had drafted poorly, over paid talent, chased over priced free agents all to build a team that was a poor fit for the modern game. Rex Ryan built a "bully" that scared no one and lost games. The team had been more concerned with the circus than being a pro football team. Our rebuild from that was quick, relatively painless (in terms of record)  and seems sustainable moving forward. 

 

The first notable thing done was... wait. There was no big roster churn during free agency. We picked up valuable players (Hyde, Poyer) but for the most part no big changes... until training camp. Once they started assessing what they had they started making moves, the goal seems clear now, ditch overpriced contracts, and gain draft capitol in the process. So they made a few big trades which accrued dead cap and draft picks. They were also purging players that did not fit the mindset they wanted, discipline, accountability, teamwork. On paper many would have thought the 2016 roster was better than the 2017 roster, but with an actual coach we broke the drought. I don't know if they expected that success but it certainly paid off, now they new team they built wouldn't have to deal with the albatross of the drought anymore. 

 

The 2018 draft was the culmination of much of that work, the Bills could move almost anywhere in that draft to get their guy, they Got him at #7 and even had a first round pick left. Its here that I'll note that since 2017 we have been one of the best teams in the draft, we have found at least 3 quality starters in each, a complete 180 from the years prior. At the beginning of the 2018 season McBeane were a joke in they eyes of the national press.  We had picked the wrong Josh, we had the most ever dead cap, we "blew up" a playoff team, we should have kept Tyrod,  and we looked awful after 2 weeks. When Vontae retired at halftime the punchline was that the bills were so bad, so lost as a franchise, that it was a wonder more players didn't leave too. But at the end of the season we had fixed our busted cap situation, had a QB that gave plenty of reason for optimism, and a developing roster. All it cost us was a 6-10 year. The lowest point of the rebuild was just 1 game worse than Rex's "playoff run" team. 

 

From there it has only gone up, wild card team, division champ, and now hopefully more. On top of that the roster is constructed in a far better way (built to win not "be a bully"), players that fit the scheme and no big stupid contracts anywhere in sight. The team is in position for their championship window to be open for years to come. 

 

Today Jerry Hughes is the last player standing who was On Rex's team. Yet despite that total roster turn over, we fixed the cap, and have a winning percentage of .609 and a poised to have our best football ahead of us. I don't know that any coach/GM pair has ever turned around a team so toughly so quickly but its truly amazing. 

 

 

Edited October 14, 2021 by Batman1876

[JohnNord]

3 minutes ago, Batman1876 said:

The first notable thing done was... wait. There was no big roster churn during free agency. We picked up valuable players (Hyde, Poyer) but for the most part no big changes... until training camp. Once they started assessing what they had they started making moves, the goal seems clear now, ditch overpriced contracts, and gain draft capitol in the process. So they made a few big trades which accrued dead cap and draft picks.

The 2017 off-season is always interesting to me - especially everything that happened before Beane.  Some will contend that McDermott was calling all of the shot when it came to rosters.  Other like Whaley and Monos will say that they were still acting GM’s as they had been years prior.  
 

It makes you wonder who was really behind the signing of Hyde and Poyer?  Was it McDermott?  Or Whaley?  

 

Another big move was declining the 5th year option on Sammy Watkins.  You can argue that picking up option might have been the better move, especially if they had planned on trading him.  They could get more for someone who wasn’t a complete rental. 
 

The Bills also f’ed up the FA compensation formula as well.  Had they been smarter about their FA signings, they could have come away with a compensatory pick for Stephon Gilmore.  

Whaley and Monos have said otherwise, but all the moves IMO have McDermott’s fingerprints on them. 

 

[Batman1876]

3 minutes ago, JohnNord said:

The 2017 off-season is always interesting to me - especially everything that happened before Beane.  Some will contend that McDermott was calling all of the shot when it came to rosters.  Other like Whaley and Monos will say that they were still acting GM’s as they had been years prior.  
 

It makes you wonder who was really behind the signing of Hyde and Poyer?  Was it McDermott?  Or Whaley?  

 

Another big move was declining the 5th year option on Sammy Watkins.  You can argue that picking up option might have been the better move, especially if they had planned on trading him.  They could get more for someone who wasn’t a complete rental. 
 

The Bills also f’ed up the FA compensation formula as well.  Had they been smarter about their FA signings, they could have come away with a compensatory pick for Stephon Gilmore.  

Whaley and Monos have said otherwise, but all the moves IMO have McDermott’s fingerprints on them. 

 

I agree, I can't imagine that Whaley was anything more than a scouting department for the draft. No way did he have full control over the draft and then get fired the next day. 

[First Round Bust]

another strength - mid-late round picks that develop thru good coaching, vet mentoring, and some time (not thrown into lineup until coaches confidence level met or exceeded)...some misses, some second round misses ? Zay, Cody (still holding out hope) pardon the pun

[Batman1876]

3 minutes ago, First Round Bust said:

another strength - mid-late round picks that develop thru good coaching, vet mentoring, and some time (not thrown into lineup until coaches confidence level met or exceeded)...some misses, some second round misses ? Zay, Cody (still holding out hope) pardon the pun

They don't talk about the Bills but the charts show the success that we've had. Riske: A new look at historical draft success for all 32 NFL teams | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF

Edited October 14, 2021 by Batman1876

[ProcessAccepted]

This years top 3 picks alone!!! Forget about being able to keep players like Milano. Having a great GM makes me happy 😂

[Jobot]

And this team is still improving... I've been saying the entire way, the trend has ALWAYS been improvement since this regime took over. They're still getting better and it's scary to think that's possible when you're the best offense and defense in the league.

[LeGOATski]

I think some regimes have turned teams around faster in terms of being contender-level. You think of Pederson and McVay recently....

 

But McBeane have always been building for long-term sustained success. A Belichick, Tomlin, Harbaugh type mentality towards the team culture and personnel.

 

I don't think these types of turnarounds are rare around the league. They're definitely rare for individual organizations.

[ColoradoBills]

One thing that sometimes gets missed is how far both Beane and McDermott have come themselves.  They were young and had

a lot of things to learn too.  They have made some fairly big mistakes but they always seem to never repeat them.

 

I don't think either of them have reached their ceilings yet.

[AuntieEm]

19 minutes ago, Batman1876 said:

I agree, I can't imagine that Whaley was anything more than a scouting department for the draft. No way did he have full control over the draft and then get fired the next day. 

 

 Likely played out like this.

 

Whaley:  Here's our scouting reports on players that match your criteria.  And pro scouting  reports on FAs.

 

Sean grabs a list from his briefcase and says here a list of Free Agents I want to interview set them up and if you can get me a ballpark figure what contract terms they are looking for.

 

So yea they made the calls set up the interviews that McD conducted and processed. They were signed as directed by McD they had no stake in the decision.  Just had the scouting reports however good or bad they were.  The whole scouting staff was also purged could be the reports by the Bill's scouts then were off by a wide margin on some players McD may have known professionally  so would give him a idea how much stock those reports held.  Not sure if Beane rehired any of the prior scouts. 

 

  Just shows McD does his due diligence he's not one that wants to be catered to he finds that serving is more rewarding.  He likely had his own draft board setup and then Doug Whaley went by that with input from McD if needed during the draft.  Not sure if there's any draftroom video of the first draft under  McD.  At least we get to see those videos now since Beane took over.  They may filter some video, but generally they seem to be pretty transparent after the fact.  Can't tip hand who they wanna draft before with transparency. 

[cage]

33 minutes ago, Batman1876 said:

They don't talk about the Bills but the charts show the success that we've had. Riske: A new look at historical draft success for all 32 NFL teams | NFL News, Rankings and Statistics | PFF

 

Great article!  I wish the graph was interactive and you could mouse-over the points to see the player, but we can figure out most of them.

[wppete]

Clearly his best move was trading up to draft Josh Allen… Getting rid of Sammy Watkins and Marcelll Darrius were his best trades getting rid of players…. Biggest mistake was trading a 3rd for Kelvin Benjamin.

[AuntieEm]

15 minutes ago, LeGOATski said:

I think some regimes have turned teams around faster in terms of being contender-level. You think of Pederson and McVay recently....

 

But McBeane have always been building for long-term sustained success. A Belichick, Tomlin, Harbaugh type mentality towards the team culture and personnel.

 

I don't think these types of turnarounds are rare around the league. They're definitely rare for individual organizations.

 

    I think its because McD and Beane share this philosophy for building a successful team that's sustainable.

 

Give a man a fish he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime.  

 

  Its no coincidence that McD says stay humble and hungry.

 

 Bills sure do feast on the Dolphins quite regularly under McD.  Things that make you go hmmm.... 

[billsfan89]

As much credit as McBeane should get I also think Pegula as an owner for the Bills has facilitated the complete turnaround of not only the on field product but the organization. 
 

Pegula has not been afraid to spend to the cap and shell out the bonus money needed to get the most out of the teams cap space even in the Rex era they had a huge 2015 spending spree. 
 

The organization also looked to have not gone cheap on coaching staffs and off field infrastructure such as training staffs. They currently have an 18 million dollar practice facility that opened in 2019.

 

Pegula also bought into McD an unproven coach and handed him and his chosen GM the keys to a longer term  3 year rebuilding plan. 
 

Ownership has been a huge component of the teams overall turnaround.

[GETTOTHE50]

It is incredible. They took an organization that was in loser limbo and turned it around to a perennial contender. 
 

we went through so many coaches and GMs before and now I almost expect to win every game. 
 

so many organizations still can’t get it right. Look at the afc east, the nfc north, the afc south etc. the lions are still in the hell the bills were.

 

it’s hard to believe how fast McDermott was able to coordinate, lead, and manage a whole organization out of hell 

Just wanted to add. McDermott needs to put out a book about turning trash into treasure 

[Ed_Formerly_of_Roch]

1 hour ago, LeGOATski said:

I think some regimes have turned teams around faster in terms of being contender-level. You think of Pederson and McVay recently....

 

But McBeane have always been building for long-term sustained success. A Belichick, Tomlin, Harbaugh type mentality towards the team culture and personnel.

 

I don't think these types of turnarounds are rare around the league. They're definitely rare for individual organizations.

 

McVay did already have his QB, granted he's since got rid of him, but in exchange for another QB who supposedly better fits his scheme in an even trade.  That certainly gave him a leg up early on.

[LeGOATski]

52 minutes ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

McVay did already have his QB, granted he's since got rid of him, but in exchange for another QB who supposedly better fits his scheme in an even trade.  That certainly gave him a leg up early on.

Yep. There are multiple ways to do it. McVay's worked, but I don't think it's a sustained success model like McBeane are going for. The McVay regime will be more up and down based on how successful they can be in FA, so you'll probably always see them making splashes (which happens to be great for the LA media market).

[Batman1876]

2 hours ago, LeGOATski said:

I think some regimes have turned teams around faster in terms of being contender-level. You think of Pederson and McVay recently....

 

But McBeane have always been building for long-term sustained success. A Belichick, Tomlin, Harbaugh type mentality towards the team culture and personnel.

 

I don't think these types of turnarounds are rare around the league. They're definitely rare for individual organizations.

McVay and Peterson’s turn around did not require a roster turn over. Plus I’m not sure Pederson had much to do with the turn around. 

[JohnNord]

It’s a complete 360 from the way the organization had been run post-Tom Donahoe.  This is where I think Ralph Wilson deserved and enormous amount of criticism as owner.  The men he put in charge of football operations is straight up offensive.  None of these four were real GM’s:

 

- Marv Levy

- Russ Brandon

- Buddy Nix

- Doug Whaley

 

Of those four, Whaley was the best by a large margin though I would argue his ceiling is director of pro personnel.  He has no clue how to build a team or lead an organization.

 

Nix never should have been a GM and was terrible, though he at least worked in the front office.  Marv Levy and Russ Brandon had NO business making any football decisions.  Another example of how Ralph tarnished this franchise

[17islongenough]

With the coaching they have in place it feels like they can draft players who are freaks of nature.   Then they can mold them to great football players