THE ROCKPILE REVIEW - Reloading

[Shaw66]

I often find that it’s useful to forget the money and the hype and the stars and instead to think about the game of football at its most basic.  I think about what it’s like to have a career as a high school football coach trying to win a championship.  

 

In high school, the raw material for building a roster is left mostly to chance (putting aside the little bit of recruiting that goes on in some places).  The head coach has very little control over the quality of players who show up on the first day of tryouts; the physical capabilities of most of those players was largely determined in random bedrooms 16 or 18 years earlier, and now here they are.  The coach’s job is to choose a roster from among the guys trying out, and then to train and mold them into a team that wins football games.

 

The programs with the best coaches have up years and down years like everyone else, but they tend to have more up years.  Why?  Because their brand of leadership, their teaching ability, and their strategic and tactical approach to the game is better than most other coaches.   So, even in years when the gene pool has left the coach a little short-handed compared to some other schools, their seasons often are quite successful. 

 

(I have had the opportunity to observe this phenomenon up close twice in my life.  I played high school basketball for Bob Hettler, one of the greatest high school coaches in New York State history, and I was on the faculty with Morgan Wootten, one of the greatest high school coaches in U.S. history.  The players changed year after year, but the winning more or less never stopped.  (Wootten did have the advantage of being able to recruit, at least a bit.)  Only occasionally did the talent fall together in just the right way to have a true championship caliber team, but even in down years, their teams stood out.)

 

Coaches know when the talent they have is outstanding and when it’s just okay.  Good coaches adapt to the challenge each season and look for the ways that this group of players can succeed, whether this group offers raw physical talent that is better or worse than last year’s group.  That’s the coach’s job, and good coaches find ways to win. 

 

Coaching is coaching, at any level.  Pro football coaches face the same annual roster turnover that high school coaches deal with.  There are differences, of course: The high school coaches have bigger problem, because their roster will be a collection 16-18 year-old kids with their own issues.  The pro coach, on the other hand, can expect at least semi-adult behavior from most of their players. 

 

The big difference, however, is the pro coach gets raw material selected from the very best players in the country.  The pro coach, year after year, is going to start the season with a training camp roster of 90 of the biggest, fastest, smartest, and toughest football players in the world.  And that means that the differences in team success based on physical talent become smaller:  the guy being tackled and the guy tackling both excel at their jobs.  For sure, if your team has more of the best guys, your team has an advantage, but in the NFL it’s very difficult to collect and hold onto talent that is physically dominant at several important positions.  In the current era, it isn’t possible to collect and keep stars like the Kelly-era Bills did.  

 

I’m not saying that getting the best talent doesn’t matter.   Of course, it matters.  What I’m saying is that not having the best talent doesn’t mean that you can’t compete.  With coaching, talent that is excellent but not the best can play a team-game that neutralizes the talent advantage any particular team might have.  Of course, if I have the best talent AND the best coaching, then the talent will be the difference.

 

People can argue endlessly about the talent on this roster and that roster, but at the end of the day success in the NFL is going to come down to how well coached your team is.  Does your coach get your team into the strategically and tactically correct offenses and defenses year-in, year out and game-in, game-out.  Does your coach get your team physically and mentally prepared to execute those offenses and defenses? 

 

In that context, consider for a moment what has happened to the Bills roster in the past three months that has the fan-base and the media all in a tizzy:  The Bills lost six big names from their roster:  White, Morse, Davis, Diggs, Hyde, and Poyer.  When each of those six came into the league, the draft market place valued them, by draft round, this way:  1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7.  Add ‘em up:  24. 

 

And now consider the Bills’ top-six acquisitions over the past three months.  Samuel, Coleman, Bishop, Carter, Davis, Van Pran-Granger.  2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5.  Total:  18. 

 

I’m not arguing for a second that there’s anything but the least-sophisticated logic to that analysis.  You can’t really just add up draft value and determine which college is better.  But those numbers aren't meaningless.

 

Those numbers are some evidence of the fact that the talent every team starts with, at least in terms of what the league thought of them when they came in.  Going into most drafts, most GMs would take 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5 over 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7. 

 

In terms of the quality of talent that will take the field in September compared to what the Bills had three months ago, I think I’ll take exactly where the Bills are today.  Think about the departures:  White, may still be a player, but at the very best he’s about to wind down, Morse, never the greatest physically, and his days were ending, Davis, the guy everyone loves to hate, Hyde slowing down and needs to go for his own health, Poyer, some years left, perhaps, but not his best. Diggs, may still be good, but not so good that he's worth the headache.  

 

Start looking at them player by player, or at least paired:  Would you rather have Diggs and Davis or Coleman and Samuel?  Would you rather have Morse or Van Pran-Granger?  Bishop or (pick one) Hyde or Poyer?  White or Carter?  Collectively, I'd rather have the youngsters than kept or extended all of those guys.

 

Now, for sure, not all of the rookies necessarily will pan out, and it may take them a year to begin to play at the level that’s needed for them to succeed in the league, but looking at the Bills three months ago and now, I will definitely take the uncertainty of these young talented players over the uncertainty of old, injured, troublesome talented players. 

 

Would the Bills be in an even better position if Beane had managed the draft in another way?   I don’t think so.  The extra talent one of the top three receivers in the draft would have brought to the team couldn’t offset the loss of the rest of the players the Bills drafted.  Said another way:  six guys are gone, and I like my chances better if I get six new guys instead of two (the new receiver and Curtis Samuel). 

 

In terms of how Beane and McDermott have done in their jobs, well, it depends if I’m a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full guy.  I like that they’ve improved the team, but I also have to ask why a group of unproven guys actually is better than the gang that just left?  How did the Bills get in the position they were in, with a group of guys who no longer were quite good enough to win, and with no backups in sight?

 

However they got to that position, I think if you asked McDermott if he likes the talent he has today, he’d say, “Absolutely!”  Can you win a Super Bowl with this talent?  “Absolutely!”  And that’s not just power-of-positive-thinking Sean speaking.  I mean, he and we thought he could win it with the talent he had last year, and if this is actually a better group, then why shouldn’t he think he should win this year? 

 

Translate this back to high school football.  It’s as though McDermott is coaching high school and has a five-star recruit at QB, several locks at D-1 scholarships (Milano, Oliver, Cook, Coleman, Torrence) and several guys who very well also might go D-1.   Considering D-2 and D-3, he has maybe 20 kids who are going to play in college.  Maybe one other high school in the state has a 5-star QB.  Some other schools might have two five-star players, but unless they have a five-star at QB, they can’t be as good together as the five-star QB he has.  Some other schools may end up with a few more D-1 guys than he has, but the reality is that doesn’t make all that much difference. 

 

Ask McDermott the high school coach if he likes were he is right now, and I’m sure he’ll say, “Absolutely.”  Ask him, the pro coach, and he'll say, "Absolutely."

 

I like what Beane has done since the end of the last season, and I’m looking forward to the 2024.  The Bills will be in the middle of the contest for the Lombardi. 

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

 

 

[JerseyBills]

Great read

Appreciate you 

[jimmynunn]

Thanks Shaw, great analysis. Hopefully that will help talk some folks off the ledge.  I'm not sure how we will do in 2024. Possibly tread water, possibly move up or down a bit. But with the draft capital for 2025, and with the cap money we will have next year, if ther Dolphins/Jets/Pats don't get us next year, I believe their window to get us "closes" for another 4-5 years. 

[HaldimandBills]

This article is so bang on. The interior DL and the linebackers will be much better simply because Milano will be back and Bernard will continue to evolve. Corner is a wash and quite honestly so is Dend. If not a slight improvement. ACL injuries are brutal and Von never should've played last season. He will be better than what Floyd gave us last season. Safety is the only question mark and if there is one position this coaching staff gets its Safety. 

 

On offense I implore people to really think on this. Our oline is still the best its ever been with Josh Allen outside last season.

 

Our RB are the best its ever been under Josh Allen. 

 

Where people fail with their receiver logic is simple to me. Shakir, Samuel, Coleman, Kincaid, Knox is superior to any receiver group we have had with Allen. Yes Diggs is an alpha but we never really surrounded him with legit B level talent. 

 

Gabe Davis, Isiah Mckenzie, John Brown, Hardy, about to retire Emmanuel Sanders, Cole Beasley outside 2021 never produced better than at a C level rate. Bills have never had decent receiver talent outside Diggs. 

 

So the question we need to ask is if force feeding Diggs the ball ultimately a better offense than spreading the ball around to B level talent? 

 

Of course I'd love a Diggs level talent and still hope we trade for one but this group of receivers are better than any other group we had had with Josh Allen. 

 

Bills were predicted to win the Superbowl in 2022 with Isiah Mckenzie as our slot. Singletary as our starting RB and a much worse Oline. Worse DT  Worse DE. Worse corners. Worse TE. Worse receiver group behind Diggs. LB is a push. so really besides safety which looks promising we actually look better going into 2024 than the projected Superbowl 2022 team. 

 

People need some serious context. 

 

[Shaw66]

1 hour ago, jimmynunn said:

Thanks Shaw, great analysis. Hopefully that will help talk some folks off the ledge.  I'm not sure how we will do in 2024. Possibly tread water, possibly move up or down a bit. But with the draft capital for 2025, and with the cap money we will have next year, if ther Dolphins/Jets/Pats don't get us next year, I believe their window to get us "closes" for another 4-5 years. 

As I said, there's room to criticize McBeane for getting into the situation they were in, but they certainly seem to have navigated the situation quite nicely.  

[Beast]

I don’t care what anyone says. This team is MUCH better than the one that took the field and lost to the Chiefs last January.

 

The Bills are going to be a load this season. Buckle up!

 

 

[GaryPinC]

2 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I often find that it’s useful to forget the money and the hype and the stars and instead to think about the game of football at its most basic.  I think about what it’s like to have a career as a high school football coach trying to win a championship.  

 

In high school, the raw material for building a roster is left mostly to chance (putting aside the little bit of recruiting that goes on in some places).  The head coach has very little control over the quality of players who show up on the first day of tryouts; the physical capabilities of most of those players was largely determined in random bedrooms 16 or 18 years earlier, and now here they are.  The coach’s job is to choose a roster from among the guys trying out, and then to train and mold them into a team that wins football games.

 

The programs with the best coaches have up years and down years like everyone else, but they tend to have more up years.  Why?  Because their brand of leadership, their teaching ability, and their strategic and tactical approach to the game is better than most other coaches.   So, even in years when the gene pool has left the coach a little short-handed compared to some other schools, their seasons often are quite successful. 

 

(I have had the opportunity to observe this phenomenon up close twice in my life.  I played high school basketball for Bob Hettler, one of the greatest high school coaches in New York State history, and I was on the faculty with Morgan Wootten, one of the greatest high school coaches in U.S. history.  The players changed year after year, but the winning more or less never stopped.  (Wootten did have the advantage of being able to recruit, at least a bit.)  Only occasionally did the talent fall together in just the right way to have a true championship caliber team, but even in down years, their teams stood out.)

 

Coaches know when the talent they have is outstanding and when it’s just okay.  Good coaches adapt to the challenge each season and look for the ways that this group of players can succeed, whether this group offers raw physical talent that is better or worse than last year’s group.  That’s the coach’s job, and good coaches find ways to win. 

 

Coaching is coaching, at any level.  Pro football coaches face the same annual roster turnover that high school coaches deal with.  There are differences, of course: The high school coaches have bigger problem, because their roster will be a collection 16-18 year-old kids with their own issues.  The pro coach, on the other hand, can expect at least semi-adult behavior from most of their players. 

 

The big difference, however, is the pro coach gets raw material selected from the very best players in the country.  The pro coach, year after year, is going to start the season with a training camp roster of 90 of the biggest, fastest, smartest, and toughest football players in the world.  And that means that the differences in team success based on physical talent become smaller:  the guy being tackled and the guy tackling both excel at their jobs.  For sure, if your team has more of the best guys, your team has an advantage, but in the NFL it’s very difficult to collect and hold onto talent that is physically dominant at several important positions.  In the current era, it isn’t possible to collect and keep stars like the Kelly-era Bills did.  

 

I’m not saying that getting the best talent doesn’t matter.   Of course, it matters.  What I’m saying is that not having the best talent doesn’t mean that you can’t compete.  With coaching, talent that is excellent but not the best can play a team-game that neutralizes the talent advantage any particular team might have.  Of course, if I have the best talent AND the best coaching, then the talent will be the difference.

 

People can argue endlessly about the talent on this roster and that roster, but at the end of the day success in the NFL is going to come down to how well coached your team is.  Does your coach get your team into the strategically and tactically correct offenses and defenses year-in, year out and game-in, game-out.  Does your coach get your team physically and mentally prepared to execute those offenses and defenses? 

 

In that context, consider for a moment what has happened to the Bills roster in the past three months that has the fan-base and the media all in a tizzy:  The Bills lost six big names from their roster:  White, Morse, Davis, Diggs, Hyde, and Poyer.  When each of those six came into the league, the draft market place valued them, by draft round, this way:  1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7.  Add ‘em up:  24. 

 

And now consider the Bills’ top-six acquisitions over the past three months.  Samuel, Coleman, Bishop, Carter, Davis, Van Pran-Granger.  2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5.  Total:  18. 

 

I’m not arguing for a second that there’s anything but the least-sophisticated logic to that analysis.  You can’t really just add up draft value and determine which college is better.  But those numbers aren't meaningless.

 

Those numbers are some evidence of the fact that the talent every team starts with, at least in terms of what the league thought of them when they came in.  Going into most drafts, most GMs would take 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5 over 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7. 

 

In terms of the quality of talent that will take the field in September compared to what the Bills had three months ago, I think I’ll take exactly where the Bills are today.  Think about the departures:  White, may still be a player, but at the very best he’s about to wind down, Morse, never the greatest physically, and his days were ending, Davis, the guy everyone loves to hate, Hyde slowing down and needs to go for his own health, Poyer, some years left, perhaps, but not his best. Diggs, may still be good, but not so good that he's worth the headache.  

 

Start looking at them player by player, or at least paired:  Would you rather have Diggs and Davis or Coleman and Samuel?  Would you rather have Morse or Van Pran-Granger?  Bishop or (pick one) Hyde or Poyer?  White or Carter?  Collectively, I'd rather have the youngsters than kept or extended all of those guys.

 

Now, for sure, not all of the rookies necessarily will pan out, and it may take them a year to begin to play at the level that’s needed for them to succeed in the league, but looking at the Bills three months ago and now, I will definitely take the uncertainty of these young talented players over the uncertainty of old, injured, troublesome talented players. 

 

Would the Bills be in an even better position if Beane had managed the draft in another way?   I don’t think so.  The extra talent one of the top three receivers in the draft would have brought to the team couldn’t offset the loss of the rest of the players the Bills drafted.  Said another way:  six guys are gone, and I like my chances better if I get six new guys instead of two (the new receiver and Curtis Samuel). 

 

In terms of how Beane and McDermott have done in their jobs, well, it depends if I’m a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full guy.  I like that they’ve improved the team, but I also have to ask why a group of unproven guys actually is better than the gang that just left?  How did the Bills get in the position they were in, with a group of guys who no longer were quite good enough to win, and with no backups in sight?

 

However they got to that position, I think if you asked McDermott if he likes the talent he has today, he’d say, “Absolutely!”  Can you win a Super Bowl with this talent?  “Absolutely!”  And that’s not just power-of-positive-thinking Sean speaking.  I mean, he and we thought he could win it with the talent he had last year, and if this is actually a better group, then why shouldn’t he think he should win this year? 

 

Translate this back to high school football.  It’s as though McDermott is coaching high school and has a five-star recruit at QB, several locks at D-1 scholarships (Milano, Oliver, Cook, Coleman, Torrence) and several guys who very well also might go D-1.   Considering D-2 and D-3, he has maybe 20 kids who are going to play in college.  Maybe one other high school in the state has a 5-star QB.  Some other schools might have two five-star players, but unless they have a five-star at QB, they can’t be as good together as the five-star QB he has.  Some other schools may end up with a few more D-1 guys than he has, but the reality is that doesn’t make all that much difference. 

 

Ask McDermott the high school coach if he likes were he is right now, and I’m sure he’ll say, “Absolutely.”  Ask him, the pro coach, and he'll say, "Absolutely."

 

I like what Beane has done since the end of the last season, and I’m looking forward to the 2024.  The Bills will be in the middle of the contest for the Lombardi. 

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

 

 

Great post, thanks for the different perspective.  I agree with you but would suggest there's one more critical component to winning a championship.  

 

Difference makers.  When the lights are the brightest, so are they.  

 

And it's not just about talent.  Downfield blocking to the whistle, pursuing with everything you've got just in case there's a tackle opportunity.  Burning desire for the high pressure.

 

-Milano back to 100% is huge because we saw signs that him and Bernard will work together well and amplify their respective difference making abilities.

-Diggs quit on the team well before season's end and his poetic drop in the KC game symbolized his fall from difference maker.

-Gabe Davis had his negatives but I will miss his supportive blocking efforts downfield.

-Hyde and Poyer unfortunately aged out of being difference makers.

-Out of all the free  agents lost, Floyd would be my biggest loss as he seemed to elevate the play of the entire D-line.

-Tauron Johnson kept.  Difference maker.

-Shakir and Kincaid both showed potential of becoming bigger difference makers this coming season.

-Cook.  Difference maker, especially if Josh would dump it off to him more!

-Oliver came into his own as a difference maker this season.  Now he needs help, hopefully Von can be at least give some.

 

We really need our promising looking rookie safety to step up quickly this year.  We'll see how the rest fall but I agree with you that it's not as bad as it seems because we didn't lose much in the way of difference-makers.

Edited April 30 by GaryPinC

[Lost]

I woulda rather ran our RB room back with Cook/Ty Johnson and using that 4th rd pick on another WR.   As it is it seems like we're putting an awful lot of stock into Coleman devolping into a #1 receiver this season and Shakir into a number 2.  Id like a little more insurance than that.

[HaldimandBills]

28 minutes ago, Beast said:

I don’t care what anyone says. This team is MUCH better than the one that took the field and lost to the Chiefs last January.

 

The Bills are going to be a load this season. Buckle up!

 

 

I wish more Bills fans recognized this. The National Media I get. Diggs, Davis  Poyer, White etc were National Household names. Of course the media is going to paint our doom, especially with the love affair with Aaron Rodgers and Miami. 

 

Us Bills fans should know better. Hyde is about to retire. Poyer being so great grabbed 2 million as a FA. White has played 10 games in 3 seasons. Davis could never put up decent #s even though he had Diggs opposite him and Allen as his QB. Morse was solid but who knows when his next concussion will happen. Diggs was the only loss the Bills are going to feel this season and quite honestly I'll take the extra 30 million in cap space moving forward. 

 

All these guys were serious let downs in the playoffs. Of course Davis will always have the 2021 Chiefs Divisional Game. Diggs disappearing act in the playoffs wore thin. 

[SoonerBillsFan]

3 hours ago, Shaw66 said:

I often find that it’s useful to forget the money and the hype and the stars and instead to think about the game of football at its most basic.  I think about what it’s like to have a career as a high school football coach trying to win a championship.  

 

In high school, the raw material for building a roster is left mostly to chance (putting aside the little bit of recruiting that goes on in some places).  The head coach has very little control over the quality of players who show up on the first day of tryouts; the physical capabilities of most of those players was largely determined in random bedrooms 16 or 18 years earlier, and now here they are.  The coach’s job is to choose a roster from among the guys trying out, and then to train and mold them into a team that wins football games.

 

The programs with the best coaches have up years and down years like everyone else, but they tend to have more up years.  Why?  Because their brand of leadership, their teaching ability, and their strategic and tactical approach to the game is better than most other coaches.   So, even in years when the gene pool has left the coach a little short-handed compared to some other schools, their seasons often are quite successful. 

 

(I have had the opportunity to observe this phenomenon up close twice in my life.  I played high school basketball for Bob Hettler, one of the greatest high school coaches in New York State history, and I was on the faculty with Morgan Wootten, one of the greatest high school coaches in U.S. history.  The players changed year after year, but the winning more or less never stopped.  (Wootten did have the advantage of being able to recruit, at least a bit.)  Only occasionally did the talent fall together in just the right way to have a true championship caliber team, but even in down years, their teams stood out.)

 

Coaches know when the talent they have is outstanding and when it’s just okay.  Good coaches adapt to the challenge each season and look for the ways that this group of players can succeed, whether this group offers raw physical talent that is better or worse than last year’s group.  That’s the coach’s job, and good coaches find ways to win. 

 

Coaching is coaching, at any level.  Pro football coaches face the same annual roster turnover that high school coaches deal with.  There are differences, of course: The high school coaches have bigger problem, because their roster will be a collection 16-18 year-old kids with their own issues.  The pro coach, on the other hand, can expect at least semi-adult behavior from most of their players. 

 

The big difference, however, is the pro coach gets raw material selected from the very best players in the country.  The pro coach, year after year, is going to start the season with a training camp roster of 90 of the biggest, fastest, smartest, and toughest football players in the world.  And that means that the differences in team success based on physical talent become smaller:  the guy being tackled and the guy tackling both excel at their jobs.  For sure, if your team has more of the best guys, your team has an advantage, but in the NFL it’s very difficult to collect and hold onto talent that is physically dominant at several important positions.  In the current era, it isn’t possible to collect and keep stars like the Kelly-era Bills did.  

 

I’m not saying that getting the best talent doesn’t matter.   Of course, it matters.  What I’m saying is that not having the best talent doesn’t mean that you can’t compete.  With coaching, talent that is excellent but not the best can play a team-game that neutralizes the talent advantage any particular team might have.  Of course, if I have the best talent AND the best coaching, then the talent will be the difference.

 

People can argue endlessly about the talent on this roster and that roster, but at the end of the day success in the NFL is going to come down to how well coached your team is.  Does your coach get your team into the strategically and tactically correct offenses and defenses year-in, year out and game-in, game-out.  Does your coach get your team physically and mentally prepared to execute those offenses and defenses? 

 

In that context, consider for a moment what has happened to the Bills roster in the past three months that has the fan-base and the media all in a tizzy:  The Bills lost six big names from their roster:  White, Morse, Davis, Diggs, Hyde, and Poyer.  When each of those six came into the league, the draft market place valued them, by draft round, this way:  1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7.  Add ‘em up:  24. 

 

And now consider the Bills’ top-six acquisitions over the past three months.  Samuel, Coleman, Bishop, Carter, Davis, Van Pran-Granger.  2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5.  Total:  18. 

 

I’m not arguing for a second that there’s anything but the least-sophisticated logic to that analysis.  You can’t really just add up draft value and determine which college is better.  But those numbers aren't meaningless.

 

Those numbers are some evidence of the fact that the talent every team starts with, at least in terms of what the league thought of them when they came in.  Going into most drafts, most GMs would take 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5 over 1, 2, 4, 5, 5, 7. 

 

In terms of the quality of talent that will take the field in September compared to what the Bills had three months ago, I think I’ll take exactly where the Bills are today.  Think about the departures:  White, may still be a player, but at the very best he’s about to wind down, Morse, never the greatest physically, and his days were ending, Davis, the guy everyone loves to hate, Hyde slowing down and needs to go for his own health, Poyer, some years left, perhaps, but not his best. Diggs, may still be good, but not so good that he's worth the headache.  

 

Start looking at them player by player, or at least paired:  Would you rather have Diggs and Davis or Coleman and Samuel?  Would you rather have Morse or Van Pran-Granger?  Bishop or (pick one) Hyde or Poyer?  White or Carter?  Collectively, I'd rather have the youngsters than kept or extended all of those guys.

 

Now, for sure, not all of the rookies necessarily will pan out, and it may take them a year to begin to play at the level that’s needed for them to succeed in the league, but looking at the Bills three months ago and now, I will definitely take the uncertainty of these young talented players over the uncertainty of old, injured, troublesome talented players. 

 

Would the Bills be in an even better position if Beane had managed the draft in another way?   I don’t think so.  The extra talent one of the top three receivers in the draft would have brought to the team couldn’t offset the loss of the rest of the players the Bills drafted.  Said another way:  six guys are gone, and I like my chances better if I get six new guys instead of two (the new receiver and Curtis Samuel). 

 

In terms of how Beane and McDermott have done in their jobs, well, it depends if I’m a glass-half-empty or glass-half-full guy.  I like that they’ve improved the team, but I also have to ask why a group of unproven guys actually is better than the gang that just left?  How did the Bills get in the position they were in, with a group of guys who no longer were quite good enough to win, and with no backups in sight?

 

However they got to that position, I think if you asked McDermott if he likes the talent he has today, he’d say, “Absolutely!”  Can you win a Super Bowl with this talent?  “Absolutely!”  And that’s not just power-of-positive-thinking Sean speaking.  I mean, he and we thought he could win it with the talent he had last year, and if this is actually a better group, then why shouldn’t he think he should win this year? 

 

Translate this back to high school football.  It’s as though McDermott is coaching high school and has a five-star recruit at QB, several locks at D-1 scholarships (Milano, Oliver, Cook, Coleman, Torrence) and several guys who very well also might go D-1.   Considering D-2 and D-3, he has maybe 20 kids who are going to play in college.  Maybe one other high school in the state has a 5-star QB.  Some other schools might have two five-star players, but unless they have a five-star at QB, they can’t be as good together as the five-star QB he has.  Some other schools may end up with a few more D-1 guys than he has, but the reality is that doesn’t make all that much difference. 

 

Ask McDermott the high school coach if he likes were he is right now, and I’m sure he’ll say, “Absolutely.”  Ask him, the pro coach, and he'll say, "Absolutely."

 

I like what Beane has done since the end of the last season, and I’m looking forward to the 2024.  The Bills will be in the middle of the contest for the Lombardi. 

 

GO BILLS!!!

 

The Rockpile Review is written to share the passion we have for the Buffalo Bills. That passion was born in the Rockpile; its parents were everyday people of western New York who translated their dedication to a full day’s hard work and simple pleasures into love for a pro football team.

 

 

Shaw...outstanding as always brother.

[LeGOATski]

1 hour ago, Shaw66 said:

As I said, there's room to criticize McBeane for getting into the situation they were in, but they certainly seem to have navigated the situation quite nicely.  

Every team gets to that position, though. It's the nature of the league and the cap. The Chiefs were in that position too, but still maintained their championship calibre because, like you said, coaching and 5-star QB plus other legit talent. Beane for sure saw it coming and it's his job to know how to navigate it. He executed his plan and we'll see how it goes. 

[SoonerBillsFan]

30 minutes ago, Lost said:

I woulda rather ran our RB room back with Cook/Ty Johnson and using that 4th rd pick on another WR.   As it is it seems like we're putting an awful lot of stock into Coleman devolping into a #1 receiver this season and Shakir into a number 2.  Id like a little more insurance than that.

Sometimes you don't get that assurance.  This was coming at some point where signing FA'S wasn't possible and it's time to let rookies and guys you have been grooming take over.

 

Our time for that is now.

[LeGOATski]

31 minutes ago, Lost said:

I woulda rather ran our RB room back with Cook/Ty Johnson and using that 4th rd pick on another WR.   As it is it seems like we're putting an awful lot of stock into Coleman devolping into a #1 receiver this season and Shakir into a number 2.  Id like a little more insurance than that.

Coleman is 2a and Shakir is 2b to their #1 Kincaid.

[Shaw66]

47 minutes ago, Lost said:

I woulda rather ran our RB room back with Cook/Ty Johnson and using that 4th rd pick on another WR.   As it is it seems like we're putting an awful lot of stock into Coleman devolping into a #1 receiver this season and Shakir into a number 2.  Id like a little more insurance than that.

Yeah.   There are many ways to skin the cat.  They did need a running back, and they got a guy who might have what it takes to replace Cook eventually.  And I don't particularly like a plan that says "we need a player, and we'll take two to be sure we get one who works out."  You're almost certainly not going to keep both of them, so you're using two picks to fill one position.  Not a fan of that, but I can't say it's wrong.  

 

Going your way, they would need a running back in free agency.  Going the way they did, they would need a receiver.  Kind of six of one, half dozen of the other.  

 

As someone said, Beane had a plan and he executed it The roster now looks pretty good to me.  He had a variety of other ways he might have gone, too.  Bottom line for me is that Beane knows what he's doing.  

[SoonerBillsFan]

1 hour ago, Beast said:

I don’t care what anyone says. This team is MUCH better than the one that took the field and lost to the Chiefs last January.

 

The Bills are going to be a load this season. Buckle up!

 

 

Agreed 💯 

[transplantbillsfan]

Shaw... was arguing the Bills would be better next year before this draft even happened... so obviously, I agree with you. 

 

To me, the national media is somehow gifting Buffalo the underdog mentality, which baffles my mind... but I think we take it and run with it.

[Richard Noggin]

3 hours ago, HaldimandBills said:

I wish more Bills fans recognized this. The National Media I get. Diggs, Davis  Poyer, White etc were National Household names. Of course the media is going to paint our doom, especially with the love affair with Aaron Rodgers and Miami. 

 

Us Bills fans should know better. Hyde is about to retire. Poyer being so great grabbed 2 million as a FA. White has played 10 games in 3 seasons. Davis could never put up decent #s even though he had Diggs opposite him and Allen as his QB. Morse was solid but who knows when his next concussion will happen. Diggs was the only loss the Bills are going to feel this season and quite honestly I'll take the extra 30 million in cap space moving forward. 

 

All these guys were serious let downs in the playoffs. Of course Davis will always have the 2021 Chiefs Divisional Game. Diggs disappearing act in the playoffs wore thin. 

 

Allen has already QB'd offenses where Cole Beasley, John Brown, Stefon Diggs, and Robert Foster (separately) had career years. Of course Gabe Davis had career games, but never really a top flight season. I think the QB can obviously work with a variety of skillsets. Imagine him with improved talent like he has in 2024? (That's right, the overall talent with Coleman, Samuel, Shakir, Kincaid, Knox, Hollins, and Shorter is an actual improvement to past years.)

[Richard Noggin]

3 hours ago, Lost said:

I woulda rather ran our RB room back with Cook/Ty Johnson and using that 4th rd pick on another WR.   As it is it seems like we're putting an awful lot of stock into Coleman devolping into a #1 receiver this season and Shakir into a number 2.  Id like a little more insurance than that.

 

Why is Shakir having to elevate to #2 when the Bills also signed Samuel? And why are those WR #s so important, but also so impossible to define? 

 

Curtis Samuel is almost the same exact size as Stefon Diggs (but thicker), definitely faster, less productive down the field but more productive in the short and intermediate zones where Brady seems to want to operate, higher draft pick/higher perceived pedigree initially but at a lower tier of production to date, and is 4 years younger...so why isn't he a great idea for this offense? Like a MUCH cheaper but not super substantively-lesser replacement. 

[Ethan in Cleveland]

Nice post. Well thought 

 

 

[GunnerBill]

4 hours ago, Richard Noggin said:

Like a MUCH cheaper but not super substantively-lesser replacement. 

 

Stefon Diggs was an elite receiver. Whether he still is remains to be seen - that is fair - but he has six consecutive 1,000 yard seasons. Samuel's best year (which in fairness did come in a Joe Brady coordinated offense) was 851 yards. I would say that is super substantively lesser. Whether he is super substantively lesser than Stefon Diggs in 2024 we will see. But the Diggs we saw for at least 3 and a half years of his run in Buffalo? Yea. Samuel is a LOOOONG way short of that. I think Samuel could have a career year though. John Brown when forced into a #1 role by lack of alternatives had a thousand yard season for us. But he still wasn't close to what peak Stef Diggs was.