Jim Monos w/ critical comments on Bills front office, coaching, roster moves

[Jrb1979]

1 minute ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

Kincaid had one of best rookie TE seasons ever.

 

I think if Kincaid was the clear TE1 last year he would’ve had monster numbers. His 2nd year he battled injuries and split time.

 

Sauce is a top 5 pick.

A better example is McDuffie. He is better CB than Elam, don't think more playing time gets Elam to that level. 

 

I do agree that if  Kincaid had he been TE1 would have had better numbers. I still not so sure he becomes an elite TE.

[Buffalo_Stampede]

6 minutes ago, Jrb1979 said:

A better example is McDuffie. He is better CB than Elam, don't think more playing time gets Elam to that level. 

 

I do agree that if  Kincaid had he been TE1 would have had better numbers. I still not so sure he becomes an elite TE.

I’m not a scout and I don’t consider myself one, but I thought Elam showed flashes as a rookie. He’s made some big plays, game saving plays. But for whatever reason the coaches always put Dane Jackson out there instead.

 

This year Elam just looked bad. Confidence was lost.

Edited Monday at 02:55 AM by Buffalo_Stampede

[The Jokeman]

3 hours ago, bobobonators said:

It’s too early to criticize Coleman. He was showing some flashes before the injury. 
 

Elam was an abomination of a pick. For McD being a defensive coach and doing such a great job with other players in the secondary, this far of a miss is a head scratcher. 
 

Kincaid has one more year, in my opinion, before we can get really down on him. 
 

The Elam debacle and the inability to hit on an edge rusher after all these years have been the biggest misses that have kept us from winning a Super Bowl in my opinion. 

We hit on Von but he got a substantial injury that he hasn't been able to rebound from. As recall the board was also high in Chandler Jones in retrospect neither lived up to their contracts but when Von was healthy he did show good things. Elam on the other hand I can't explain. From an athletic stand point he looks good. I remember his predraft video and his playbook so felt had the sense to put effort in yet not sure what happened. Yet it happens.

Edited Monday at 03:09 AM by The Jokeman

[BisonBilly]

Bills need to take BPA at all level of the draft.  If this is true, then Beane needs to butt out and listen to his scouts.  
 

our early drafts have been poor, and clearly reaching for need (Kinkaid, Elam, Bishop, Coleman) instead of just takings BpA and having a roster of studs 

[ndirish1978]

Monos was a Doug Whaley, Russ Brandon, Doug Marrone guy. A blind man could look at our missed 1-2 rd picks and say "they should have picked up some top 10 players at that position with those picks." I don't really like Monos, or Dunne for that matter. 

[GunnerBill]

15 hours ago, Buffalo_Stampede said:

I’m not a scout and I don’t consider myself one, but I thought Elam showed flashes as a rookie. He’s made some big plays, game saving plays. But for whatever reason the coaches always put Dane Jackson out there instead.

 

This year Elam just looked bad. Confidence was lost.

 

The problem with Elam was never lack of splash plays. It was lack of consistent making of the routine plays. 

[Mat68]

On 2/14/2025 at 2:44 PM, Jrb1979 said:

Solid starters aren't what this team needs. They need elite game breakers and outside of Allen haven't had much luck drafting that.  As @HappyDays mentioned, they put too much focus on culture and fit. 

I get it. My point is Allen is such a massive success you can’t just simply dismiss it.  Besides the best draft pick in 30 years Beane is average at drafting.  His time with Whaley they were not able to say that. 

[DCofNC]

On 2/14/2025 at 1:49 PM, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

I do think people (me included) are a little unfair to Beane. He has hit on a lot of great draft picks, including early round ones. We just tend to dwell on the not-so-good picks.

 

Allen, Tre, Edmunds, Dion, Oliver, Rousseau, AJE. All first and second round picks who I think panned out very well. 

When you don’t even know who the guy has drafted, it’s tough to defend him accurately.  I’d also say your expectations for 1st/2nd round guys is remarkably low.

[Miyagi-Do Karate]

1 minute ago, DCofNC said:

When you don’t even know who the guy has drafted, it’s tough to defend him accurately.  I’d also say your expectations for 1st/2nd round guys is remarkably low.

well, the 2017 draft was McD, I suppose. It definitely wasn’t Whaley.
 

But guys like Rousseau and AJE were what I would expect for late 1st and 2nd round picks. Edmunds was a key cog of our defense. Allen obviously a home run and then some. 
 

I am not saying Beane has been great in those early rounds, but I also think it’s unfair for the pundits to point at Elam as illustrative of his early round drafting. 
 

 

[DCofNC]

10 hours ago, BisonBilly said:

Bills need to take BPA at all level of the draft.  If this is true, then Beane needs to butt out and listen to his scouts.  
 

our early drafts have been poor, and clearly reaching for need (Kinkaid, Elam, Bishop, Coleman) instead of just takings BpA and having a roster of studs 

This ALL DAY long.  He commits the same sin every freaking draft.  He gets locked on a positional need and won’t get off it for the BPA.  This is why Boogie was taken not Humphrey, Elam, Coleman, Oliver, Rousseau etc. EVERY DRAFT.   Even the one he got lucky on Allen, he needed a QB and a MLB, guess what happened?  It worked once to force a need pick, he got lucky that the 3rd QB taken was the best one.  Let’s call it what it is.   He swung for the fences and even admitted he didn’t care what it cost because if Allen didn’t pan out he knew it was the end anyway.  He took a shot, it worked.  The reality is he would have been just as wild if Allen had gone to Cleveland as it was speculated and Baker had been there.   
 

As much as I respected the way he trimmed the fat, he’s proceeded to layer it right back on again and handcuff the team.  It all compounds from awful drafts leaving holes to be filled by FAs that cost a fortune.   If you take away Allen and look at this roster, anyone would be right to question why the GM has a job.  If you look at the playoffs, one would be right to ask why the coach has one too.

[DCofNC]

2 minutes ago, Miyagi-Do Karate said:

well, the 2017 draft was McD, I suppose. It definitely wasn’t Whaley.
 

But guys like Rousseau and AJE were what I would expect for late 1st and 2nd round picks. Edmunds was a key cog of our defense. Allen obviously a home run and then some. 
 

I am not saying Beane has been great in those early rounds, but I also think it’s unfair for the pundits to point at Elam as illustrative of his early round drafting. 
 

 

If Elam were the single example, it wouldn’t be an issue.  The fact is, he’s had a top 10 pick, wasted on Oliver, sorry, not sorry, but an average at best starter who’s completely useless without help.  There’s the Basham incident, Kincaid being MIA this year sure doesn’t bode well.  Coleman looking like he’s a #5 when there were other options a plenty isn’t helping.. the list goes on and the fact is, he’s whiffed multiple times on the talent evaluation of the positions he’s trying to force a pick on, which is compounding the fact he’s clearly NOT going BPA and is trying to force fill holes at the top of the draft. 

[Big Turk]

Can be critical but you can't be too bad considering they have the 2nd best winning percentage in all of pro sports in the last 6 years only to the Chiefs.

 

No matter who you have on your team, it's very very hard to be that consistently good to great over that length of time.

 

And considering they have the best point differential by am almost unheard of 250 points over the 2nd place team over that time, hard to say a lot.

 

People who do are just looking for something to complain about.

 

Sure, we could use more top end talent, but so could most teams if we are being honest.

 

At the end of the day, they just need to figure it out on D in the key playoff games.

Edited Tuesday at 01:56 PM by Big Turk

[Captain Hindsight]

On 2/15/2025 at 11:12 PM, DabillsDaBillsDaBills said:

 

I agree it's the correct move to have Allen sit his rookie year.

 

My point is that it's criminal malpractice to have him sit behind NATHAN PETERMAN without a single other QB on the roster. He was supposed to sit on the bench and learn from the worst QB in NFL history?

 

Peterman was an unmitigated disaster in week 1 and was benched (permanently) at halftime. 

 

We threw Allen to the wolves by the 2nd half of week 1 in his rookie season. It's incredible he turned out the way he did.

 

IMO Allen developed into an MVP QB despite McDermott/Daboll/Dorsey and not because of them. Not even the Jets would have put Allen in a worse position in his rookie season. 

The plan was to have AJ McCarron start until Josh was ready. McCarron was so bad in camp they had to try something else. (They got a 5th round pick for him which is still incredible to me) They should have just started Josh, but it only took about a half for them to get to that conclusion.

[Jrb1979]

25 minutes ago, Big Turk said:

Can be critical but you can't be too bad considering they have the 2nd best winning percentage in all of pro sports in the last 6 years only to the Chiefs.

 

No matter who you have on your team, it's very very hard to be that consistently good to great over that length of time.

 

And considering they have the best point differential by am almost unheard of 250 points over the 2nd place team over that time, hard to say a lot.

 

People who do are just looking for something to complain about.

 

Sure, we could use more top end talent, but so could most teams if we are being honest.

 

At the end of the day, they just need to figure it out on D in the key playoff games.

IMO the bolded is where the difference of opinion is. Many believe that while they need more high end talent, that making a play here or there will change the outcome. 

 

IMO teams that win, win cause high end talent make those plays. 

[Royale with Cheese]

10 hours ago, DCofNC said:

This ALL DAY long.  He commits the same sin every freaking draft.  He gets locked on a positional need and won’t get off it for the BPA.  This is why Boogie was taken not Humphrey, Elam, Coleman, Oliver, Rousseau etc. EVERY DRAFT.   Even the one he got lucky on Allen, he needed a QB and a MLB, guess what happened?  It worked once to force a need pick, he got lucky that the 3rd QB taken was the best one.  Let’s call it what it is.   He swung for the fences and even admitted he didn’t care what it cost because if Allen didn’t pan out he knew it was the end anyway.  He took a shot, it worked.  The reality is he would have been just as wild if Allen had gone to Cleveland as it was speculated and Baker had been there.   
 

As much as I respected the way he trimmed the fat, he’s proceeded to layer it right back on again and handcuff the team.  It all compounds from awful drafts leaving holes to be filled by FAs that cost a fortune.   If you take away Allen and look at this roster, anyone would be right to question why the GM has a job.  If you look at the playoffs, one would be right to ask why the coach has one too.

Unless you know what the Bills board, you really don’t know if it was a need or BPA pick.  All the players listed above could very well have been there BPA when they were picking.

[FireChans]

7 minutes ago, Royale with Cheese said:

Unless you know what the Bills board, you really don’t know if it was a need or BPA pick.  All the players listed above could very well have been there BPA when they were picking.

Almost every Bills first round pick being their desperate need that offseason is just a coincidence. 

[GunnerBill]

15 minutes ago, FireChans said:

Almost every Bills first round pick being their desperate need that offseason is just a coincidence. 

 

I'm not here to tell anyone that my grades are the be all and end all, of course not, but by my board Ed Oliver was BPA in 2019 and Groot was among a cluster of guys within a tiny margin of each other in 2021. None since then have been close to BPA on my board. My sense is that as the team has got close their urgency to find "that one piece" has increased and the quality of their early draft decisions has suffered a little.

[Green Lightning]

On 2/14/2025 at 1:30 PM, Process said:

Didn't listen but read your summary and yea, there's not much to say. 

 

If you want to sum up why this team has zero Superbowls it's very simple...Coleman, Kincaid, Oliver, Greg and Elam. 

 

Can throw in AJE and Basham. Even Singletary and Moss since third round is pretty high for RBs. 

 

We don't even know what we have in Cole and Carter because they spent most of the year sitting on the bench. 

 

Zero elite players or difference makers. 

 

There's no sugarcoating or debate, Beane has been a massive failure with early draft picks. 

 

I'd like to push back on this, but I can't. The results are what they are. These are huge misses and why our D is so lacking elite players.  

[ChronicAndKnuckles]

On 2/14/2025 at 2:41 PM, DasNootz said:

Rarely does criticism come from someone who is doing better than you....

Monos was director of personnel for the Bills 2013-2017. Let's look at the track record:

2013: Ej Manuel, Robert Woods, Kiko, Marquis Goodwin, Duke Williams, Jonathan Meeks Dustin Hopkins, Chris Gragg
2014: Sammy Watkins, Cyry Kouandijo, Preston Brown, Ross Cockrell, Cyril Richardson, Randell Johnson, Seantrel Hendersen
2015: Ronald Darby, John Miller, Karlos Williams, Tony Steward, Nick O'Leary, Dezmin Lewis
2016: Shaq Lawson, Reggie Ragland, Adolphus Washington, Cardale Jones, Jonathan Williams, Kolby Listree, Kevon Semour
2017: Tre White, Zay Jones, Dion Dawkins, Matt Milano, Natah Peterman, Tanner Vallejo

 

One good draft class in 5 tries - coincidently the first year Beane and McDermott were here with him.

 

 

I had no idea the Bills drafted Dustin Hopkins

[GASabresIUFan]

So Monos had a high position on the Bills from 2013-2017.  No playoff appearances, no division titles.  Beane and McD 5 straight division championships and playoff 7 of 8 years.  
 

Thanks for your input Jim, have fun in the UFL.  Best of luck with your new venture.  
 

‘Go do what Philly did” “load up on DL in the 1st rd” LOL. Davis and Carter are top 10 or 15 picks.  Bills haven’t had one of those in a while.  The worst Philly drafted in the last 5 years was 22nd.  The Bills best pick was 23rd.  Now you know why Monos is in the UFL.

Edited Wednesday at 07:20 AM by GASabresIUFan