Do you pay less attention to the Bills in the offseason now that the team is good?

[Another Fan]

By good I mean it’s certainly at the very least expected the team will make the playoffs and win the AFC East.  
 

I seem to now really only follow the main headlines around the team like the Coleman pick.  Or stuff that might help or not help get the team over the top.

 

During the Jauron/Gailey/Marrone years I’d look at the roster top to bottom in the offseason and look for ways the team could improve.  Follow more rounds in the draft and the Bills choices, etc..,.

 

But I guess for some fans trying to win the Super Bowl provides extra incentive to still follow closely what goes on? 

[billsfanmiamioh]

I still obviously follow all the big storylines as well but I agree I’m less neurotic about it compared to the drought years. The draft used to be like our superbowl because it seemed like the only hope. I’d pretty much watch the entirety of it and would always catch each of our picks. This year I’m not sure I even saw a single Bills pick “live”. I much prefer this new way.   

[Gregg]

I would say more. We have been close to winning a championship these past few seasons. Any moves that Beane can make that can get the Bills over the top gets more attention. When you are in a massive rebuild see 1984,1985 as examples and the team sucks and won't be competitive for a while I would think interest in the team declines some. Look at the attendance from those years. 

[T master]

No i think i pay more attention now . The past incompetence of the Bills front office & coaching during the drought was well less then exciting . There were a couple of exciting signings like to me Spiller, & later on Mario but not a lot of high expectations back then . I did like the Gailey coaching hire but that didn't work out either . 

 

Now with Beane at the helm you never know what he's going to pull out of his sleeve and this season given what they did with the Diggs trade  Gabe leaving i wanted to see who the future wide outs were going to be that Beane brought in in the draft .

 

I think he could have gotten Keon & should have gotten 1 other really good wide out but with the others he's brought in i think they will be fine once everyone gets the offense down & Josh gets a bit more comfortable with the new weapons he has to work with .

 

But i'm much more in tune with what the Bills do now than i use to be . GO BILLS !!!! 

[Captain Hindsight]

I pay the same amount of attention to the Bills, but less so to the rest of the league. I found out like a week ago the Panthers new HCs name. 10 years ago, I could have probably told you who their LS was 

[corta765]

Probably less now, I understand why Patriot fans basically didn't give a flying f*ck about the offseason for two decades now. If you have a truly great QB you will be in it every year and while some years the roster will be better and others worse, you have a guy who you know can deliver the goods and give you a shot regardless.

 

In a weird way its made it less fun just simply as during the drought days or 2017-20 as the team was on the way up hope sprang eternal and you were excited to see could they take a next step. At this point were at the last step which is winning the SB so the excitement only starts kicking once the season starts for me at this point. Also this offseason had to be lack luster as the cap got cleaned up so any major moves were limited which dampens excitement too. Next offseason if they trade for a WR or sign a name brand FA I am sure my excitement would go up a bit, but again still in the same boat because we got Josh.  

 

As for the NFL itself its probably the same. I think the draft is a week too late now and it drags things a little too long at this point.

[Don Otreply]

It was the opposite for me, for the most part of the drought years I pretty much only paid attention during the season, I kept an eye on things so to speak, but I had little faith in ownership/ the front office’s ability to not screw up most everything they touched in those days, ideally Ralph should have sold the team a decade sooner, he had been past his capacity to run the ship for a while, but it was what it was, now it’s far more interesting to see who is brought on via the draft and free agency, jmo. 

[GASabresIUFan]

Actually this is the first time I have really ever really followed the Bills off-season closely.  What drew me in this winter was seeing how Beane was going to navigate the salary cap mess he created.  I've been hoping for a youth movement for years and I've been advocating for him to invest draft capital in skill players for years and starting with the Cook he finally reached the same decision.  

 

It also helped that my Hoosiers basketball team and the Sabres both sucked this winter, freeing up my time to invest in Beane's retooling.  

 

I'm completely impressed with what Beane has done this off-season.  I know people are upset about Diggs (I'm not) and still hope for more WR help (It's not coming) and more depth in other areas, but look at all he's accomplished.  

1) He got us out of cap hell for the foreseeable future.

2) He has reshaped the roster from one of the oldest in the NFL to the middle of the pack in one off-season.  

3) He got younger, cheaper (and imho more talented) while maintaining 16 of 22 starters.  You could also argue that Rapp was also a starter by year end and that Miller is returning to a starting role.

4) He completely re-tooled the WR and S rooms.  Gone are WRs Diggs, Davis, Harty and Sherfield.  In with Coleman, Samuel, Hollins, MVS and Claypool.  At S, the aging Hyde and Poyer were replaced with Bishop and former KC starter Edwards.  2024 marked the first time Beane has invested premium draft picks on either WR or S.  If we are being honest these overhauls were overdue.  Hyde and Poyer were significantly diminished players in 2023 and Davis, Harty and Sherfield were terrible last year.  Once we looked at the falloff in Digg's play, it also becamse obvious why he was traded as well.  McD is a great DB coach and I expect the trio of Edwards, Rapp and Bishop will outperform the 2023 versions of Hyde and Poyer.  I'm also excited to see the pass targets spread more evenly over a larger and more talented WR room.

5) Some position groups are better than ever.  Our RBs are the best we've had since Beane became GM.  The combo of Cook and Davis should be really fun.  The LBs, TEs and OL are the deepest that I can remember.  

 

I'm excited for the coming season.  I like the new look Bills.  They are younger, more talented and have a much higher upside.  They will have some growing pains, but I'm excited to see Josh play without being tethered to feeding Diggs.  

 

 

Edited May 29 by GASabresIUFan

[hondo in seattle]

2 hours ago, Another Fan said:

By good I mean it’s certainly at the very least expected the team will make the playoffs and win the AFC East.  
 

I seem to now really only follow the main headlines around the team like the Coleman pick.  Or stuff that might help or not help get the team over the top.

 

During the Jauron/Gailey/Marrone years I’d look at the roster top to bottom in the offseason and look for ways the team could improve.  Follow more rounds in the draft and the Bills choices, etc..,.

 

But I guess for some fans trying to win the Super Bowl provides extra incentive to still follow closely what goes on? 

 

If anything, I pay more attention to the Bills.  It's the extra incentive you mentioned.  Since McD and Beane arrived, I feel like every season we have a chance to win a Super Bowl.  A slim chance maybe but it's not 1,000 to 1.  Maybe 10 to 1 and that's enough to grab hold of my hope and blow it up.  So I watch the team closely to see if maybe this is finally the year.  

 

 

[SoonerBillsFan]

2 hours ago, Another Fan said:

By good I mean it’s certainly at the very least expected the team will make the playoffs and win the AFC East.  
 

I seem to now really only follow the main headlines around the team like the Coleman pick.  Or stuff that might help or not help get the team over the top.

 

During the Jauron/Gailey/Marrone years I’d look at the roster top to bottom in the offseason and look for ways the team could improve.  Follow more rounds in the draft and the Bills choices, etc..,.

 

But I guess for some fans trying to win the Super Bowl provides extra incentive to still follow closely what goes on? 

Nope, I dig the offseason.  My wife knows that the draft is my 2nd Christmas 😁

[Orlando Buffalo]

2 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

I pay the same amount of attention to the Bills, but less so to the rest of the league. I found out like a week ago the Panthers new HCs name. 10 years ago, I could have probably told you who their LS was 

I am the same as you, I had someone who is not a Bengals or major NFL fan tell me today that Chase and Higgins are holding out. 8 years ago I would have known that within an hour. 

[Allen2D̶i̶g̶g̶s̶TBD]

The off-season mentality is a lot different than it was during the drought years.

 

Back then, even signing a washed up T.O. was a momentous occasion since few players wanted to play for a bad team in cold weather.

 

Now we have no problem attracting talent and even getting players to sign team-friendly deals to play here.

 

 

[The Firebaugh Kid]

About the same honestly. 

[SCBills]

Any offseason apathy, for me, would be due to the lack of new faces.  We've had so much continuity lately.. but this off-season is quite interesting, especially once we get to mid-late July and things start ramping up. 

[Mark Vader]

3 hours ago, Captain Hindsight said:

I pay the same amount of attention to the Bills, but less so to the rest of the league. I found out like a week ago the Panthers new HCs name. 10 years ago, I could have probably told you who their LS was 

I am/was the same way. I could have named every teams starting offensive line.

 

I still pay attention to the NFL overall, just not as intensely as I used to.

 

As for the question at hand, my attention to the Bills remains the same during the offseason. I'm looking for news on the Bills every day. No matter how good or bad a team they are, I stay invested.

[BigDingus]

Yes, I no longer spend countless hours late at night arguing if JP Losman or Kelly Holcomb is better, or typing up essays on why Tyrod Taylor sucks.

 

And hallelujah for that!

[dje85]

I don't follow otas personally. I start to care once the pads are on and preseason games are going. All otas are puff pieces and hey everyone looks great in shorts. 

[Alphadawg7]

Im even more vested in the offseason now that we are good.  Every little bit matters now, especially when we are talking about how coming up short has come down to so often of just not making one or two more plays.  

[MJS]

I was more invested in the draft. I did more research on players, especially QB's. The draft was all we really had to look forward to. There was always hope that we would get a difference maker.

 

I actually watch fewer games around the league, though. I used to watch a lot of other teams play and think, "Why can't the Bills look like this?". Now, I watch other teams and most of them are boring and kind of sucky. The Bills with Josh Allen are so much more entertaining. So, that's a big change.

[GunnerBill]

I'm still totally invested in the offseason up to the draft. I am less invested in OTAs and mini camps and such things because ultimately each of the last 5 or 6 years I reckon 48 or 49 of the 53 were set in stone after draft weekend. In some of the drought years there were 12-15 roster spots potentially up for grabs. That made the offseason programme interesting to me. I'll really kick back in during camp, especially as we ramp up to the pre-season opener. There are a few stories there to follow IMO. Who wins the starting safety jobs. Who gets looks in the return game and what they do at gunner now that both Jones and Neal are gone. How the rotation looks at defensive end opposite Groot and to an extent what their base wide receiver look is.... although I'd be surprised if it is anything other than Coleman at X, Samuel at Z and Shakir in the slot.