Thurman#1

So, to re-state, there's an opinion out there you disagree with? And you find this shocking and unreasonable? Gosh, glad you shared that.

That's not a very sensible opinion. Says a lot more about you than it does about the players.

You should be very surprised. Don't expect them to move up that early in the draft now that they've got QBs on both O and D. 9th to 6th would be 250 points, roughly a low 2nd or high 3rd rounder. They aren't giving away those picks. Those are the ones they can pick guys like Bradbury, Ximines or Deebo with.

Can you make a strong case? Do it, then. To me, the only case you could make is that it's similar to most FA classes where significant money is spent without picking up one of the top five or ten guys. And there have been hundreds of FA classes like that across the league. And yeah, some of those FA classes have been awful. And some exceptionally good. And most somewhere in the middle of the bell curve.

Oh, please. You know a point is weak when the writer has to exaggerate so immensely. Produce some links where people the FO said McCarron was an "incredible" value, mentioned a "magic hat," he'd pulled anything out of, or said Star "would be a star." Star's been very good, he's done what they wanted from him, and he shows no signs whatsoever of being being a temporary hole fill. Yes, FA was used to fill holes. This year too. In fact, it's pretty much what FA is for. And blaming Beane for Vontae in light of how he left is just stupid. Yes, when you sign someone you say positive things about him, and that's not just the Bills. But you had to exaggerate what was said precisely because the point is so weak. The good news about Lotulelei is that he's here and doing what they want him to do. The rest of the "duds Beane signed" include Hauschka, Levi Wallace, McKenzie, Foster, Anderson, Gaines, and a bunch of others, some of whom have done well, and others of whom haven't. And he brought them in in a year when they had serious salary cap problems and not a lot of cash to throw around. How come you left out those guys? They don't fit your narrative? How about constructing a narrative strong enough, next time, to stand up to all the facts? As for "high potential for flameouts," nonsense. No more than any other group of FAs. Your last paragraph, at least, makes a lot of sense. I disagree that there's only one thing FA is good for. It's good for a lot of purposes. But yeah, one of the primary ones is what you're talking about, filling in the gaps so you can draft for BPA.

The problem wasn't Mario or his contract. The defense was good enough for several years there. The problem was Fitzy at QB. Bringing in a QB who has franchise potential was absolutely something they should have done long ago and was desperately needed. Choosing Allen as that guy ... well, we'll see. Too early to say, though I'm hopeful. I do like the way the new FO works. A lot. But they still have a lot to prove.

Sometimes it happens that way. Other times it doesn't. Sometimes it doesn't take days to investigate. Other times it does. Just wait. Yeah, this too. It works both ways. Wait.

Nobody says half a decade. If a rebuild takes that long there were some major setbacks. But the Browns rebuild is in Year 4 at this point. It didn't begin this year. It began with Sashi Brown, if not earlier. This year they appear to have hit the tipping point, but it's been a long painful rebuild for Browns fans. But worth it. Two years ago people on here tried to use the Browns as evidence that rebuilds were stupid and didn't work. The sensible folk on here said, "Their future looks great. Look at their draft picks. Yeah, they're terrible this year but things look very good there." And now we see it. Rebuilds take time, complete ones anyway. Three years is about the shortest it's ever worked in. Yeah, there are plenty of one-year turnarounds ... that were either reloads of pretty decent teams that were only a key player or three away, or were actually not one-year turnarounds but instead the third or fourth year of a long and painful turnaround ala the Browns where they finally get good. But that's not a one-year turnaround. It's the year you finally see all the pain come to fruition.

Hunh? Not sure what you mean so I'll answer my own question. If you already think he's shown he's the franchise QB, I'd argue your threshhold for "franchise QB" is too low. He's still got a lot to prove. And it won't be a play that makes him the franchise QB if he gets there, it'll be the consistency of his play and particularly his passing over a long period of time.

Go look at the frequency they traded up in Carolina in the early rounds. Wildly unlikely. Not impossible, but wildly unlikely.

Please. May be off the table for you, but for nobody else is trading back gone. Might not happen, but you can bet they still think it's an option. Trading up? Yeah, not in the first round. Last year they had two massive holes they needed to fill, particularly at QB but also at the Kuechle spot in McD's defence. This year no massive holes. Not unless someone like Bosa falls to sixth or seventh or something wild like that.

How many times in a row have you asked this question? People are telling you that based on talent and impact players, yeah, they think so. Me too. They're a young team and a lot of their guys are still improving a lot.

Oh, yeah. There are American retirees all over the cheaper areas of Southeast Asia. You can retire on a military pension and afford a maid and a cook, I'm told. I'm not military but I've met a bunch of military retirees and spouses as we travel. The Philippines has a bunch of them too. And sun sun sun.

Oh my God, yes. The American elections are tolerable here.

Yup, I live in Japan. "Our top"? Was "our tour" auto-corrected? I've visited Thailand a bunch of times, as it's so cheap. Get a massage (not a Krafty, instead get the legit kind). Super cheap. It's like two hours for $8. My wife and I used to get them right on the beach together. We also love the food there, and the food at the stalls is as good as it is at the restaurants. Love the tuktuks too, and the temples. The people are so kind. I'll never forget arranging to rent a motorbike from a guy who lived by the road. We asked him where we could rent a motorbike. He called his son over and said, "Use his." We didn't leave a passport or money or anything. Just pay when you get back. (We did!) Also loved visiting "The Beach," from the DiCaprio movie, though it sounds like you're in a different part of the country. I bet you've seen a lot of Germans, right? Germans and Australians seem to flock there, but not all that many Yanks. Enjoy!

I'm not even convinced yet that he leaves Arizona. You're right, though, that it's possible. It would be depressing that the Pats dynasty came with no other QBs in the division for like two decades and then the era of the Bills excellence the division is full of them.

To remove the certainties and create choices ... to create conflict in the form of freedom to choose ... is precisely what you want FA to do. I like it too, a lot. Saying that, though, Josh Allen should be long long gone.

If you want to best prepare a guy to play a position ... you have him play the position for a year. What you don't do ... have him play another position and then slide him over now that he knows how to play another position instinctively. In McD's defence, you need a serious athlete at MLB. Kuechly in Carolina, for ex. If Edmunds hadn't been able to handle it, they'd have been willing to put someone else there. But he got a lot better late and shows every sign of being the guy they want there forever. I just don't see this happening.

Too early by far right now to know that' we'll have even more cap $ next year. I'd bet it's quite a bit less than $75 mill. But it should indeed be very healthy again next year. But I expect them to keep it healthy every year. That's how the Panthers operate, and most of the best teams in the league, really.

He hasn't just claimed it. He's been judicious as hell. And when you have $75 mill, and you spend it judiciously, you can bring in a lot of pretty decent players, fill a lot of holes. And when you start talking about division crowns this early, you make people wonder if there are vast cases of Kool-Aid in your storerooms. I like how they're doing things a great deal. But they still have a lot to prove. I expect improvement, though. I think it's legit to expect far fewer areas of obvious weakness this year. But we still have a 2nd year QB and an OL that's never worked together. Playoffs seem possible this year, but far from a sure thing.

There's nothing new about it. Yeah, they're using other teams to develop guys. Teams have been doing that since before there were facemasks. Trading and picking up guys other teams don't want to pay isn't new. It's as old as sports. Your first point seems to de-value the draft. That's the absolute last thing they want to do. They want to build their team with the draft. It's where they will get the overwhelming majority of their core guys. They'll draft them and that way they can teach and develop them from minute one Get two studs each year in the draft? That's ridiculous. It's just a start. They want four or five contributors each year from the draft or UDFAs and the more studs the better. Last year isn't the year you should look at to see how they'll attack the draft. Last year was special, a year when they traded away a ton of guys to develop the draft capital to pick a QB. And yeah they got Edmunds as well, but they wouldn't have been able to get him if they'd traded up to #5 as they'd planned to do before Denver found that their guy was still available there. They aren't going to have that much draft capital available most years. 2017 is probably a better example of what they're likely to be doing, though maybe it'd be safer to say that we haven't seen an ordinary year of their drafting yet. In 2017 they were already collecting trade bait to acquire their QB and they traded back. Tre White wasn't seen - at the time - as a guy with HOF potential. They picked him because he was the BPA. I like what they're doing. An awful lot. But it's the opposite of new. It's the template that most of the smart and consistently successful teams in the league have used for decades. It's the same template used by teams like the Pats, Ravens, Steelers, Giants and Packers. The pillars these teams use are these: 1) Build through the draft 2) Don't get in cap trouble 3) Because you aren't in cap trouble, re-sign your core players to second contracts 4) Fill in the gaps with free agents and trades, but don't bring in the really high-budget guys more than once every four or five years. Do this mostly with low- and medium-priced FAs. 5) Use FA to fill in the obvious gaps and holes so that you can draft for need. 6) Before anything else ... do what's necessary to get yourself a QB, even if it requires a rebuild. There are a few more, but this is the path the Bills are following, and it's the smartest way. What it isn't ... is new. It's old. But not easy. So far they appear to be doing it right, though they still have a lot to prove.

As thoroughly wrong a post as I've ever seen. Eugene Parker, not Drew Rosenhaus, was Peters' agent. And Parker's method was to say what he wanted, and to not change, knowing that he was very very good at picking a number someone would pay. Which happened in the Peters case. Peters, a hall-of-gamer soon, left Buffalo because they wouldn't pay him what he wanted and what he absolutely deserved.

Rapaport was first and right, both. And it was almost certainly the Steelers who leaked, to try to put pressure on the Bills to go through with it and to maybe try to draw in an extra suitor or two thinking there was a serious suitor and that it might end soon. The fact that he went to Oakland, not exactly NYC or Chicago and not a team that looks like it will win this year, and not a team with a terrific QB already proven and in place IMHO makes it look very likely that what Beane thought was right ... that if they'd worked out a deal on money there would have been no problems with Brown reporting.

Yup. Many did laugh. The slower ones. The ones who didn't recognize a rebuild, in which we got a possible franchise QB. The Steelers, though, aren't rebuilding. They're in a window where they've got a very short few more years with Roethlisberger to try to win a championship.

I didn't think Carucci said that it came down to money, so I just went back and re-read it. He didn't say that at all. All he said was that parallel negotiations were ongoing, and that "it stands to reason that 'the larger the payout for Brown, the lower the compensation the team would be willing to give in order to reduce the risk, and vice versa.' " But that neither indicates a source on that specific part of this, nor a declaration that money was the problem. It also doesn't indicate that both sides of the negotiations were in depth. They could've talked a lot with the Steelers and on introductory convo with Rosenhaus declaring interest. It doesn't say.