Magox

It's quite remarkable that we have so many posters who purport themselves to be knowledgeable of the game who cannot mentally process that collecting individual talent does not equate successful team success. While talent is very important and needed to succeed in any professional sports setting what is also important is team mentality and culture. Some people can attempt to rationalize that this year was a fluke and that McD/Beane's emphatic attempt to change culture and bring in THEIR guys and remove all the guys they didn't believe fit their vision was some sort of a coincidence. But logic tells you otherwise, these guys clearly removed some talent from the team from players that at best weren't all in with the team philosophy and despite the shortcomings the Bills had from a talent perspective, still was able to overcome, consistently beat the teams they were supposed to beat and getting the victory in KC was huge. I'm excited to see what this organization does in the off season to stock up on talent. In regards to White, what a great selection. The guy epitomizes everything you want in a football player. Extremely talented, dedicated, energetic and is all in with what this TEAM is trying to do.

I'm hoping the Bills gameplan lots of Tyrod runs today. I think he will be the key figure if we end up winning. Seriously, I'm thinking about 10 rushes for Tyrod and lots of throws on the run. Conventional run game I don't believe will get it done, it will have to be loosed up with Tyrod rushing, scrambling, play action and passing. Got to get them off balance.

Which goes back to my premise that Whaley was not able to sell his vision nor plan of action to the Pegula's.

The media and propaganda wanted me to think that? That's some powerful stuff there

He has been worth every penny of his contract? Not even close, he has been a massive bust since he has signed his contract

I didn't say evaluate but place a proper value. Sammy Watkins was talented but not 2 first rounders worth. Dareus was talented but not the contract that he receives.

You can chalk that under C, he wasn't able to sell himself and vision to the ownership. That's what good GM's do

His three main problems were A) Didn't have a clear vision and plan of action. B) Didn't know how to properly value talent C) Was unable to sell himself enough to ownership to have more control

Not to mimic a lot of other posters but when I look at this team, I don't see one indispensable member that is largely attributable to our wins and losses. There were many cogs to this wheel, many players that were valuable to the success we had this past season. I mean, Shady is our most talented member of our offense. Tyrod was the leader of that offense. Tre had a great year, the safeties were fantastic, Gaines was valuable. Hughes was the only real disruptor of the defensive line. Kyle was the heart and soul of the team. It truly was a team effort.

I think you can risk around $8m a year for a proven player such as Gaines. Now risking $13m+ for an inconsistent yet highly talented WR is a different matter. That trade from Beane was a big time for the Bills. What a trade!

I may be reading too much into this, but that sounds hopeful.

I expect it to be better. Much better. I hope Detroit doesn't re-sign Ziggy Ansah, I think he'd be a great addition to our front 7. Get somebody like him and another quality FA DT, draft a DT and couple LB's and now we are in business.

Sanders didn't lose him because of speed, he lost him because he was caught ball watching.

Not quite. As much as I love the structure of this defense and our secondary, we need 4-5 new players on our front 7. We BADLY need a DE that can get pass pressure to go along with Hughes. We will need 2 DT's, (K. Williams won't be around too much longer). And from my perspective, we need 2 more LB's, to replace P. Brown and L. Alexander. I expect a major overhaul of our front 7 next year.

This organization is finally moving in the right direction and to top things off we have lots of cap space and draft choices to build this team in the vision of the architects.

P. Brown is serviceable and I don't believe that is what McD/Beane are looking for out of our MLB. I expect them to let him walk.

Pfff clearly Kyle Williams is a media creation.

The teeth gnashing over that trade reached apoplectic levels. Turns out that we ended up making out big on that trade. We received a more valuable player for us in Gaines than Sammy was for the Rams, a second rounder and probably some cap savings to boot.

Big shout out to Gaines and Hughes this past week as they were 2 of the top defensive players according to their rankings this weekend. Even though Hughes missed a couple sacks he was constantly getting pressure and in the backfield of the Dolphins. This is the Hughes we need to see more often. Gaines, another fantastic performance. Hopefully we sign him for a multi year contract, it would be nice to have our top 4 DB's in place for the next 4 years.

A lot of posters were dead wrong about Ducasse, many claiming that he didn't even belong in the league and/or he was the worst guard they'd ever seen. Clearly, they were wrong. Ducasse isn't great but he's been in more cases than not this past season anywhere from average to slightly above average. He's had a few below average games but he's been ok. His reputation among posters at TBD did not reflect his actual play, specially over the second half of the season. McD let Miller and Ducasse compete for the job and the bottom line was that Ducasse won out.

Yet another gem from the OP.

Much like Ducasse, he got this reputation that didn't align with his performance. The more I think about it, the more I'd like to see another year of continuity to build off of this year.

I say if we can lock up Gaines for around $8 million a year. We are 8-3 with him starting and 1-4 without him. And these wins losses is not some sort of coincidence, he makes a noticeable and meaningful impact and even against the Dolphins he was probably our best defensive player. In regards to the trade, that trade has proven to be remarkable. We ended up getting a DB that was much more valuable to us than Sammy was to the Rams AND we get a 2nd rounder, along with millions in cap savings. We fleeced the Rams.

Whaley did the scouting and set the board, Sean made the decisions

Yes, it's an "I told you so" thread. But a well-warranted thread. Why? Because many of these guys and specially the old guard of the board, kicked and screamed throughout the year longing for the days of Whaley, the legendary decoy Sammy, the all-world JAG backup Jwill and the underperforming Dareus. Now we come to realize that this organization didn't need those players and that Mcd/Beane are building a TEAM not a collection of players.