Beane: "This team is in transition"

[GunnerBill]

7 minutes ago, Low Positive said:

If that’s what he believes in, then he’s gone against his own beliefs in the last two drafts. 

 

I mean its still one receiver in 7 years first two days.

[Low Positive]

3 minutes ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I mean it’s still one receiver in 7 years first two days.

Kincaid was the best pass catcher on the board when the Bills drafted last year. I think the distinction between playmaking positions is breaking down in the NFL. I know you hate basketball, but this happened in that sport about a decade ago. Now you have the PG, the C, and a bunch of 6-8 to 6-10 swingmen that can all shoot. Everyone can score from everywhere. I think this is how Joe Brady wants to play. I hope he knows what he’s doing.

[GunnerBill]

24 minutes ago, FireChans said:

It’s why firing McD and keeping Beane won’t change roster building strategy, imo.

 

Agree unless they hired like a Shanahan or a McVay or someone who would have the authority to have final personnel say and use Beane as a glorified chief scout (although if you are doing that you'd be better getting someone else IMO).

[jahnyc]

Our draft feels like a draft to fill depth more than anything else.  Did we pick the best player at any of the positions for which we drafted?  Not according to the draft experts, but time will tell.  If the goal was to draft players to be starters this season, I would have expected a more aggressive effort to move up in the draft at key positions of need, such as WR.  I assume that Coleman will be a starter, but he seems to be pegged as more of a slot than anything else, not a needed #1 or #2 WR.  I guess Van Pran Granger and Bishop will get shots, but I don't see them as full-time starters this season, but we will see.

[Big Turk]

16 hours ago, HappyDays said:

This quote from Beane defines the entire draft strategy:

 

He is giving it to us straight. The Bills are in a rebuild year. So he went for all team captains. Guys that interviewed well. Guys that he believes set a new foundation of leadership in the building. He hunted for short term needs that fit the singular character profile he and McDermott feel comfortable with, at the expense of talent at premium positions. And he is telling the fanbase to temper our expectations without coming right out and saying it.

 

I'm not gonna grade a draft until we see how all the players turn out, but the overall philosophy shown this weekend is deflating and uninspiring.

 

Not rebuild. Reload.

[SoonerBillsFan]

I believe they are positioning themselves for 2025.  Right now I am betting they expect a 9-8 or so season with a shot at a wildcard.

[billykay]

Is Micah Hyde definitely out this year ?

[henry jones]

It's unfathomable how so many people can't see that this team needed to get younger.  We were in CAP hell and it was only a matter of time before it caught up with us.  It happens to every team.  I would love to have a team like the Patriots of the 2000's that won the division every year and was a Super Bowl favorite every year.  They were the outlier.  But even still, there were many years in their unprecedented run that they overachieved.  Maybe this is the year we actually overachieve after year's of underachieving.  Generally I'm not very optimistic with Buffalo sports teams, but I do believe they are still on track.  

[harmonkillebrew]

1 hour ago, jahnyc said:

Our draft feels like a draft to fill depth more than anything else.  Did we pick the best player at any of the positions for which we drafted?  Not according to the draft experts, but time will tell.  If the goal was to draft players to be starters this season, I would have expected a more aggressive effort to move up in the draft at key positions of need, such as WR.  I assume that Coleman will be a starter, but he seems to be pegged as more of a slot than anything else, not a needed #1 or #2 WR.  I guess Van Pran Granger and Bishop will get shots, but I don't see them as full-time starters this season, but we will see.

Agree entirely.  Bishop being the exception

[Hsker4life]

16 hours ago, DJB said:

Drafting guys with character, leadership and heart is great and all but if they aren’t good enough they will simply be guys with heart, character and leadership on the street and not on the Bills. 
 

 

Drafting guys without character, leadership and heart is great and all, but if they aren’t good enough they will simply be guys without heart, character and leadership on the street and not on the Bills.

[Jimmy Harris 69]

The team while transitioning is still “going for it”; Bean said that too when Diggs was traded. It’s no less true that the Chiefs were going for it when they brought in rookie starters on defense two years ago. The nature of a transition : Change from one form, state, style, or place to another.  This is not a reconstruction or rebuild. I feel no need to lose my mind. The team has a great line, qb, many weapons, excellent defensive coaches and lots of talent. I’m excited to see Keon Coleman, and Bishop jump in. Many of us are quick to give the other teams too much credit. It’s easier to win the draft day press conference than to field excellent players two years later. I like our draft a lot. We replenished all key positions. A veteran receiver by July is likely.  It’s spring, time for tearing out the weeds and sick plants; raking out the beds. We plant anew, fertilize and watch the plants grow. 

[GoBills808]

2 hours ago, FireChans said:

It’s why firing McD and keeping Beane won’t change roster building strategy, imo.

It absolutely would

[Beck Water]

6 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

Of course McD had a part to play but Brandon Beane's constant focus on the DL isn't because of Sean McDermott. It is because of Dave Gettleman and Marty Hurney. 

 

Seriously, people should go and look at the guys Beane learned his trade under. It isn't McDermott's influence that he drafts loads of DL and LBs and RBs and almost no WRs. That is who Carolina were when he was in that front office moving through the ranks.

 

I think it's both.  As a GM, it's Beane's job to supply his HC and coordinators with the players they tell him they need to build a top team.  If Sean McDermott didn't insist upon a full DL rotation as a core part of his defensive strategy, Beane wouldn't be constantly focused on signing FA and drafting capable DL players or guys that they are confident they can develop into capable DL players.

 

What's more, McDermott is - loaded word, but, fixated? on the characters of his DLmen.  His defense critically depends upon the DL maintaining run gap integrity and not just pinning their ears back and going after the QB.  There's a story that when Andy Reid fired McDermott as DC in Philly after 2 11-5 and 10-6 seasons where the D went from 4th to 19th to 21st, McDermott immediately started gathering feedback from players, coaching assistants, former players.  One of the key feedback he reportedly got, from a respected player, was "you got to make sure all your players are bought in (to his system).  He took it to heart.  That's one reason McDermott is slow to move on from guys he perceives as "bought in" even if they're under-performing or injured excessively (Star Lotulelei, Harrison Phillips, etc), IMO

That said, I had a piece elsewhere before the draft about Carolina's pattern drafting for offense,  and I absolutely see echoes of that in how Beane prioritizes defense - he'll say he doesn't, but he does.   People like to talk about the Bills drafting Carolina players, but the real issue IMHO is Beane having internalized Carolina's lack of urgency about supplying premier offensive talent to go around their star QB.

But you can see Beane's flexibility in terms of what offense he is supplying.  Daboll and Dorsey wanted small speedy guys hence stockpiling Nyheim Hines, McKenzie, Deonte Harty.  Looks as though Brady may have different ideas about our offensive identity hence Keon Coleman.

 

6 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

I disagree on that. To me the difference is a reload is about moving on older expensive players. A rebuild you are giving away prime age players for assets - what the Commanders did last trade deadline was a tear down for a rebuild. Sell any asset on the roster build picks. Miami when they first ditched Gase and hired Flo did the same. They are rebuilds. That is the distinction IMO. 

 

Agree.  "Rebuild" was what McDermott started and Beane continued when he arrived.  It was said at the time as a critique of Whaley that the Bills had the fewest drafted players on their roster.  But as part of the rebuild, Beane jettisoned any player he could get any kind of reasonable draft pick return from.  And many of the guys they jettisoned, went on to play multiple years for other teams, it's not like they can't ball.  Darby for a 3rd round pick; Cordy Glenn to move up 9 slots from 21 to 12 in the first round; Dareus for a 5th round and to shed cap etc etc (there are more I forget now).  He didn't do that because they had better (at the time) players on the roster, he did that because he was collecting draft capital to move up and get a QB at all costs, so he had to move on from anyone he could get value from.

 

This was a re-set because we were soldiering on with the same core cast of players hoping to change this and that and get them a ring, and it hasn't worked out, but they've aged out.  So we're moving on.

 

 

[Buffalo Boy]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

Agree unless they hired like a Shanahan or a McVay or someone who would have the authority to have final personnel say and use Beane as a glorified chief scout (although if you are doing that you'd be better getting someone else IMO).

   Which was my point earlier. I think the coach matters and Beane came after McD did his first draft. He was also from Carolina so…..

[PBF81]

6 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

Of course McD had a part to play but Brandon Beane's constant focus on the DL isn't because of Sean McDermott. It is because of Dave Gettleman and Marty Hurney. 

 

Seriously, people should go and look at the guys Beane learned his trade under. It isn't McDermott's influence that he drafts loads of DL and LBs and RBs and almost no WRs. That is who Carolina were when he was in that front office moving through the ranks. 

 

That's a bit of a reach Gunner.  While what you say may be true, even you have admitted that McD influences Beane's choices.  McD is pure D, zero O.  Even he's essentially admitted as much.  

 

The identity of this team is clearly D-First apart from Allen.  As you pointed out in a post after this, only 1 WR on days 1 & 2, and it's a guy that leans more like Davis than any other productive WR we've had.  

 

There is no strategy in building the O.  Consider, we threw Singletary and Moss overboard with the statements that we wanted to get faster on offense and highlighted Cook.  Then we turn around and draft all but a Moss clone in round 4 this season.  None of our offensive strategy makes much sense and there certainly is zero consistency from season to season, either in coaching or in methodology as to what our Offense is supposed to look like, ... other than for letting Allen be personally responsible for 75%+ of the production.  

 

That's at the heart of the pro/anti-McD debate.  On the anti side are those that think we should be focusing on offense like McBeane have focused on the defense.  That makes the most sense to anyone that knows football besides McD apologists.  It should be a no-brainer, when you have a generational talented QB like Allen, you do everything possible to build around that QB.  We've not done that.  In fact, we've done everything to build around McD's defense, often ignoring major needs on the Offense.  

 

I realize that you won't agree, that's because you're on the pro side, so that's understandable, just sayin' otherwise.  

 

We can argue and bicker, but not one of us has the ability to alter what happens.  LOL  

 

Go Bills!!  

 

 

[The Jokeman]

2 hours ago, GunnerBill said:

 

I mean its still one receiver in 7 years first two days.

But he added guys in UFA that started in Brown, Beasley and Sanders. 

[ProcessTruster]

bills are 57 - 23 in regular season since they playoff streak started in 2019.    They've won 7 out of 10 games for 5 years running.   that is amazing.   McBeanes have created a very successful program that has real legs.   

 

Single elimination tournaments of the NFL sort are crap shoots where the healthiest team that is playing well almost always gets to the SB, the other playoff teams are one or two and done.   See Philly two years ago and KC last year; they both got healthy for the playoffs (Philly was the healthiest team in the league that year).   Bills have been pretty severely banged up in key spots come playoff time in recent years. 

 

One of these years, they will be the playing-well+healthy team that goes all the way.   Trust what Beane is doing.   The 70% win percentage speaks for itself.  

[PBF81]

3 minutes ago, The Jokeman said:

But he added guys in UFA that started in Brown, Beasley and Sanders. 

 

Draft.  Focus.  

[The Jokeman]

Just now, PBF81 said:

 

Draft.  Focus.  

My point being free agency affects how you draft. 

[Gigs]

This board is depressing. I feel bad for your families. I'll be back at training camp when the rest of us glass half full and realists invade with positivity since we are the only ones who can see past 40 times and consider mentality and production paramount. 

 

Crying over 40 times and not being able to read between the lines make y'all sound like uninformed babies. I'm willing to bet in person y'all probably have had the Bills at 5 wins total over the last 5 years. Some of you are cool and make actual thoughtful posts and responses, but 80% of this board right now needs to go smoke a bowl and chill tf out. None of you are smarter than the people running the team, or you all would have worked for the Bills at some point. There's a reason we are here and not trading the house for Malik Nabers. 

 

Sometimes I wonder if WGR raids this board and cherry picks some of you ding dongs, heavy into a 12'er of Genny at 8am, ready to make stupid takes so Sal and Jeremy can have a field day with you. I'm tired of the laziness. I'm tired of the melancholy around here; it's like a ***** comedic morgue sometimes. I tried being sarcastic, I tried to reason with all of your logic...it's just so ***** depressing and unintelligent. I love football; and I highly doubt most of you love it as well.

 

It seems more like you need the Bills to win to satisfy your egos, rather than something we can all have and take pride in. So trading Diggs is less a cancer treatment and more a right hook to your egos. Trading back and landing the WR equivalent to JA bruised that ego so bad you're now in a Rocky-esque stupor. Beane did what he felt he needed to do, bruised egos and all. 

 

Respond all you want, I won't read it; I don't care about you're hurt feelings and your "but, but, buts". And my last take (and it's the bitter truth): The Bills haven't won anything because they've been too immature when they go. Jimbos ego cost us 25, plain and simple. Thurman was destroying them, but Jimbo just haaaad to be the one to win it. Not to mention the partying the night before. That's why Beane focused on leadership. He's shifting away from immaturity, look at Diggs. The Chiefs win because they're serious about it, and these moves make us a more serious team in the long run. We need guys like Coleman who drink football instead of those Gennys. We need men, not immature little boys; this ain't the sandlot. 

 

Ffs, you people...

 

Tl;dr This board is immature and sad and most of us are tired of the baby antics because your ego was bruised by long term investment over building a team of super men or MonStars. Also, if the 40 time meant anything as far as success, explain Jerry Rice or Emmitt Smith because according to this board's logic Jerry Rice is a scrub compared to Xavier Worthy. Rice ran a full .5 seconds slower than Worthy. Half a second! Yet he will never be caught; how ironic.