st pete gogolak

A mock I saw today had Bills trading down with Miami (to #13) so Miami could pick a QB. Would you trade down with a division rival? If you thought that the division rival was going to reach and pick a QB who isn't worth the #9 spot, I guess the answer is yes. FYI, they had us picking Rashan Gary followed by the Falcons picking Oliver. If we pick up a second, I could live with #13.

Not that it would have changed the team's destiny (not in a QB dominated league and we didn't have one then or for years after) but I always have wondered what would have happened to the team's fortunes if we had picked Ngata instead of Whitner. The horrendousness of the Whitner pick manifested itself immediately because - in need of a big defensive tackle (hence why everyone but everyone assumed the first pick would be Ngata) - we moved back into the first round to pick (wait for it) John McCargo!! Can you imagine if we had picked Ngata and then have been smart enough to move back into the first round to pick Nick Mangold? Would have had rock solid foundations in the middle of the O-Line and the D-Line for the next decade. Twas not to be, cheri.

I don't post in SabreSpace, so I have to take this opportunity to say, "Ladies and gentlemen, may I present to you the WORST general manager in the history of Buffalo professional sports (including the Braves and the guy who decided to draft John Hummer instead of Calvin Murphy)!!

Well, this (and Brown) clarifies things for the draft. No Metcalf. No Isabella later on. If we sign Williams, no OL at #9. Can get Oliver (now that we're going on 20 years, do you realize that Brady doesn't like pressure up the middle?), Hockerson or White.

Yeah, Juwaan Taylor. Seriously, if not Williams, there goes any flexibility we have going into the draft. #9 has to be OL.

Humphries would have been a terrific pick-up. Oh well, I guess that leaves the door wide open for Isabella.

Looking back, I wish we had DRAFTED Mack.

Humphries should be the target but if we sign him we won't draft the little guy from BC.

Absolutely, it's a factor. Maybe not a huge factor but certainly one. How many times has NE advanced from a #3 or #4 seed to the Super Bowl? They live or die on being the #1 or #2 seed. If Houston doesn't lose to Philly this year, NE is #3 seed - no bye week for Brady, most likely two games on the road. Do they make it to the Super Bowl? Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a great team and Belichek is clearly the best head coach of all time, but being in a division with three weak sisters for 20 years (!) has certainly helped.

Tasker was just tremendous in that game. If Tasker is the third wide receiver in Super Bowl XXV instead of Al Edwards we win that game. He could have been Welker or Edelman before Welker and Edelman. Derek Holmes was fantastic as well. Really thought he would be something special. Thought the same thing about Karlos Williams. Oh well.

All of the comments on the Chargers defensive game plan are spot on. Don't play soft zone. Play press man to man. If Brady can beat you deep, so be it. I agree that the game was over on the Pat's second TD. The other interesting thing is that Bosa and Ingraham did nothing. The passes were so quick they weren't going to get pressure on the edge. Again, if you're going to hope to slow down NE offense, you have to get pressure up the middle.

Given all the revisionist history, I went back and looked at a couple of 2017 mock drafts. Two had the Bills picking Lattimore and one had them picking Watson. Mahones was #13 in two and #15 in one. If the Bills had stayed put and drafted Lattimore and Mahones had been picked #11 or #12, would this board feel better or worse? Instead of Lattimore, we ended up with a player at the same position with basically same upside plus a first round pick. Pretty good right? I think what this shows is how perfectly KC played this. They spotted a QB they really liked, knew where he would likely go in the draft, made a move up 17(!) spots to get him and only gave up a future first, had the luxury of letting him sit a year and surrounded him with offensive talent. Hope somebody can say the same about Allen in a year or two.

The Bills are actually the exact opposite of Ronald Wayne. Ralph Wilson turned a $25,000 investment in 1959 into whatever Pegula paid for the team a couple of years ago.

At least he was a half-way respectable DE. Remember when they tried to turn him into a 3-4 OLB? Hilariously bad.

OK. So who is the Bills best 2nd round pick of all-time? Was Thurman a 2nd round pick? In fact, that would be a fun thread. Who's the best #1st round, #2nd round, etc.

Holy crap. Colts have TWO rookies FIRST TEAM ALL -PRO! Shades of Gayle Sayers and Dick Butkus!

Honestly, is there a single Bills fan who misses this guy? I've never seen a player avoid contact like Gilmore did in the year before free agency. It was a total joke.

Crossman can't possibly survive this purge.

Didn't mean to offend. The word has a generic meaning outside the medical field (roughly equivalent to inconsistent) and that was only intended use.

I've been watching NFL games for a long time (going back to the original AFL) and I can't remember any defense having the season the Bills just had. The stats were all over the map. Some were great (2nd in YPG, less than 20 yards from being first overall, 3rd in YPP, 1st in pass yards per game), some were very good but not great (T-8th in turnovers, 9th in 3rd down conversion, 9th in rushing yards per attempt), some were mediocre (16th in rushing yards per game, 18th in scoring defense), some were awful (26th in sacks, 30th in red zone defense). A couple of games (Colts, Jags and second Pats game) we were utterly gouged on the ground. Other than that, the run defense was generally ok. A final defensive stop in three games (Texans, Dolphins and Jets) gives us three wins which were ultimately losses. Even individual players seemed to be on a roller coaster (Tre White is solid other than two consecutive games where he looks like a JAG.) If anybody has any comparisons to this defense from years past, I'd be interested to hear them. Assuming we take care of the O-line in free agency, I'm all for upgrading the front seven. Anthony Barr as a big free agent splash to play OLB opposite Milano (and edge pass rusher on passing downs) and Ed Oliver at #9 to give us some interior pass rush.

Please not another Panther. If you're going to bring in Panthers, bring in Kalill and Williams to shore up the offensive line. If you're going to target a wideout, make it Adam Humphries from the Bucs.

I haven't seen a recent mock where he is available outside top three.

There was a very nice article in the Tampa Bay Times the other day regarding WR Adam Humphries. He's a free agent. He's very unlikely to resign with the Bucs given the money they already have tied up in WR's. I think Humphries could be a legitimate free agent target in the offseason. He's certainly not the mystical #1 receiver this board wants but he can be a reliable outlet for Allen - Allen's Edelman if you will. I don't think it would take a ton of money either. My only question is whether he is a Zay Jones clone with better hands? I don't think Humphries is the guy to beat man to man coverage and he's not a burner. If we can spend money on the OL and radically upgrade it, are you willing to go into next year with Foster, Jones, Humphries and McKenzie as your wideouts? Another intriguing Buc FA is Kwon Alexander. He was on IR most of the year and I don't know how healthy he is but if they intend to move Edmunds outside (which I do not think is in the cards), Alexander can give you a run stuffing LB on the cheap.

Wow. This would be fantastic. I'm not a capologist. Is this even doable?

The consensus appears to be that the defense was not elite this year, not great or however you want to phrase it. To me, you can't be second in YPG, third in YPP without at least being good to very good. Contrast that with an offense that was at the bottom of almost every statistical measure and by many measures was historically bad. The logical way to go is to spend every available dime upgrading the offense. What if we're a player or two from that elusive elite or great defense? Take a penetrating DT (Oliver?) or a DE who can get to the QB (Allen?), sign someone like Anthony Barr, a hybrid OLB/DE who can give you a lot of versatility on getting to the passer. I wouldn't mind seeing that scenario at all. If you spend assets on defense, you've got too many holes to fill on offense to fix in one offseason. I'd take remaining money and picks to seriously upgrade the offensive line. Wideouts, tight end and running back will have to wait. That will be next season's fix. I think that fits the timeline. Next year markedly better; 2020 serious contender. Make sense?