Team Building Philosophy: Draft, Develop retain judiciously

[Matt_In_NH]

If you are here to say the cap does not exist this thread is not for you.

 

I find it interesting the Chiefs are in a much more healthy salary cap position than the Bills and many other teams and they are playing in Super Bowl's most years.   They have chosen to not sign some big free agents on their team, trade a unicorn WR and draft/develop.  The Chiefs have carefully paid guys in FA but they also have the highest priced player in the league.   Under Beane the philosophy has been draft develop retain and sign some key free agents.  Personally I think they have retained a little more than they need to and signed more FA's than needed which has resulted in a tough cap situation and a situation where draft picks struggle to make the team.    When you let guys go (for bigger dollars) it provides opportunities for other guys on the roster.  For instance Tremaine Edmunds moving on provided an opportunity for Terrell Bernard.   The Chiefs philosophy has been to focus on the trenches and defense in the draft vs "we need more and more weapons" which is the complete opposite of what most think the Bills should do.   Beane has tried to extend nearly every draft pick who has worked out which includes guys like Knox, Bass and Oliver who I was not crazy about any of those contracts when they were given.  Oliver has lived up to it but not so sure about Bass and Knox.  

 

For the past few years 6th and 7th round picks have mostly not made the final roster (Benford is an exception) and most of those players ended up on other teams rosters, none have developed into all stars yet but what is the point of having those picks if they can't make the team. The Bills fill the roster with vets that have experience and they push those rookies off the team.    Personally I would like to see most of the draft picks make the team and have opportunities to play when the situation arises.  Some will bust out but others will provide cheap depth and possibly grow into something much above their draft status.

 

At this point I would seriously consider offloading some contracts through cuts and trades (if possible) and open up cap for future years while drafting 10 guys and having most of them make the team who will grow into key contributors down the road.  The Chiefs have proven they can with the SB while offloading talent (Hill) because they have Mahomes and are well coached.  I am good with a first round WR but I think that position gets talked about way too much.   This team needs to get young on the DL and backend of the defense.

[SoonerBillsFan]

But we have missed a ton on 1st and 2nd rounders that should be retained. Hell we drafted a LB in the 1st that wasn't worth keeping. Gotta draft good talent that you want and need to keep.

[Matt_In_NH]

29 minutes ago, SoonerBillsFan said:

Hell we drafted a LB in the 1st that wasn't worth keeping

I don't agree, we drafted a LB in the first round we got a good 5 years out of and was not worth the value to the Bills he was to another team.  It is ok to let guys go. I believe Beane wanted to resign Edmunds but he could not justify it cap wise with the other people he signed.  I Believe if Von was not signed, that money may have went to Edmunds and then we would not have learned what Bernard is.   

 

Edited January 30 by Matt_In_NH

[The Jokeman]

8 minutes ago, Matt_In_NH said:

If you are here to say the cap does not exist this thread is not for you.

 

I find it interesting the Chiefs are in a much more healthy salary cap position than the Bills and many other teams and they are playing in Super Bowl's most years.   They have chosen to not sign some big free agents on their team, trade a unicorn WR and draft/develop.  The Chiefs have carefully paid guys in FA but they also have the highest priced player in the league.   Under Beane the philosophy has been draft develop retain and sign some key free agents.  Personally I think they have retained a little more than they need to and signed more FA's than needed which has resulted in a tough cap situation and a situation where draft picks struggle to make the team.    When you let guys go (for bigger dollars) it provides opportunities for other guys on the roster.  For instance Tremaine Edmunds moving on provided an opportunity for Terrell Bernard.   The Chiefs philosophy has been to focus on the trenches and defense in the draft vs "we need more and more weapons" which is the complete opposite of what most think the Bills should do.   Beane has tried to extend nearly every draft pick who has worked out which includes guys like Knox, Bass and Oliver who I was not crazy about any of those contracts when they were given.  Oliver has lived up to it but not so sure about Bass and Knox.  

 

For the past few years 6th and 7th round picks have mostly not made the final roster (Benford is an exception) and most of those players ended up on other teams rosters, none have developed into all stars yet but what is the point of having those picks if they can't make the team. The Bills fill the roster with vets that have experience and they push those rookies off the team.    Personally I would like to see most of the draft picks make the team and have opportunities to play when the situation arises.  Some will bust out but others will provide cheap depth and possibly grow into something much above their draft status.

 

At this point I would seriously consider offloading some contracts through cuts and trades (if possible) and open up cap for future years while drafting 10 guys and having most of them make the team who will grow into key contributors down the road.  The Chiefs have proven they can with the SB while offloading talent (Hill) because they have Mahomes and are well coached.  I am good with a first round WR but I think that position gets talked about way too much.   This team needs to get young on the DL and backend of the defense.

If they lose Chris Jones and Sneed in free agency this year it will be interesting in how they go about replacing them. Both were good value picks being one was a 3rd and the other was 4th. 

[SoCal Deek]

This is an equation with multiple variables so if you remember your math training it’s a bit challenging to solve…unless you simply substitute an assumption for one of the variables. The Bills have done extremely well the past many seasons with their player personnel. The results (wins, playoff consistency, stats, etc) speak for themselves. But, to compare it to the Chiefs, and I’d throw in the Patriots during the Brady era, the missing variable in your equation is Coaching. The answer to winning it all is not finding another superstar somewhere on the roster. It’s pairing your superstar QB with a head coach that’ll make the right game day decisions at the crucial time. 

Edited January 30 by SoCal Deek

[Matt_In_NH]

18 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

This is an equation with multiple variables so if you remember your math training it’s a bit challenging to solve…unless you simply substitute an assumption for one of the variables. The Bills have done extremely well the past many seasons with their player personnel. The results (wins, playoff consistency, stats, etc) speak for themselves. But, to compare it to the Chiefs, and I’d throw in the Patriots during the Brady era, the missing variable in your equation is Coaching. The answer to winning it all is not finding another superstar somewhere on the roster. It’s pairing your superstar QB with a head coach that’ll make the right game day decisions at the crucial time. 

 

I agree Beans has provided a talented and deep roster.   However compare the cap situation of the Chiefs and Pats and you will see those teams have done more with less.   I am not going to fight about the HC here but I believe they can win with McDermott and the reality is it is not changing.  I will counter to say where the Bills lack is on top end talent.   They have Josh and then a drop off to Diggs/Milano and then lots of good talent.   They don't have perennial All pro type talent anywhere.

[GunnerBill]

30 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

If they lose Chris Jones and Sneed in free agency this year it will be interesting in how they go about replacing them. Both were good value picks being one was a 3rd and the other was 4th. 

 

Chris Jones was early day 2. The Chiefs traded out of the first (think with the 9ers who took that guard out of Stanford who was a gigantic bust) and took him with the 2nd or 3rd pick of the second round. 

[SoCal Deek]

5 minutes ago, Matt_In_NH said:

 

I agree Beans has provided a talented and deep roster.   However compare the cap situation of the Chiefs and Pats and you will see those teams have done more with less.   I am not going to fight about the HC here but I believe they can win with McDermott and the reality is it is not changing.  I will counter to say where the Bills lack is on top end talent.   They have Josh and then a drop off to Diggs/Milano and then lots of good talent.   They don't have perennial All pro type talent anywhere.

The Bills HAVE won with McD. They just haven’t won the championship. In fact they haven’t even made the Superbowl. You can look under every rock that you want for the roster stud that’ll get them those last couple of wins in January but it isn’t going to make any difference if there isn’t a change at HC. Now, please understand it’s been a great few years for sure, but get used to more of the same. 

[Goin Breakdown]

18 minutes ago, SoCal Deek said:

The Bills HAVE won with McD. They just haven’t won the championship. In fact they haven’t even made the Superbowl. You can look under every rock that you want for the roster stud that’ll get them those last couple of wins in January but it isn’t going to make any difference if there isn’t a change at HC. Now, please understand it’s been a great few years for sure, but get used to more of the same. 

Agreed. Sure we may get a good player or two, but so will KC, Cinci, Miami and so on. It all equals out, so it really does come back to coaching. 
 

[The Jokeman]

1 hour ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Chris Jones was early day 2. The Chiefs traded out of the first (think with the 9ers who took that guard out of Stanford who was a gigantic bust) and took him with the 2nd or 3rd pick of the second round. 

Either way he's not going to be easy for them to replace same as Sneed. Now they may free up cap room to get one of them most feel Jones looking to get top money for his position and not sure the Chiefs can do that and imagine after this season Sneed going to look for top 5 CB money as well. Time will tell but it could be some changes to their D next year. 

[colin]

andy has a philosophy of killer qb and oline above all, and he's done that.  he poured picks and signed to big fat contracts o linemen.  he simply won't field a team without premier talent on the oline.

 

mc d, as close as i can tell, wants qb (got that) and DL and dbs above all.  we have had mostly hits on the DB side, but our safety super value is over and the guys aged out.  white getting hurt at corner doesn't help there, and us getting elam while kc got mcduffie really stinks, we've had pretty great db play throughout.  the DL has been another story.  so many picks and fa contracts to replacement clowns, or slightly above who get platooned and replaced w junk far too often.  von getting hurt took out the player who mighta gotten us over in 2021 (before we signed him) and maybe even in 2022 (when cinci trucked us).

 

it's really close, but kc has hit on more draft picks than we have, misses on basham, kinda misses on aj and groot, and elam, means we had to go sign floyd and von, and trade for douglas.