Utah John

I think Beane is asking himself, what are my needs going to be in 2023? Which players are getting old or too expensive, who will need to be replaced after a year or two? I think those are the "future holes" that Beane is going to try to fill. Just like Epenesa, who didn't do badly but also didn't impress much in his rookie year, while we still had a list of decent D linemen, so we didn't need Epenesa to be great last year. By 2022, he should be a very good, important player on the D. I think, if there's a good safety available, that will be the pick. Hyde and Poyer are till playing well but are starting to get up there. Letting Dean Marlowe walk was the clue for me. Marlowe was a good substitute, but I think that slot is going to go to a high draft pick rookie, who can spend a year or so learning from Hyde and Poyer, and eventually take over for one of them.

... and the Patriots are awarded a compensatory draft pick...

Genius at work.

No way. A competent RB on his cheap rookie contract is not getting cut or traded. Motor could stand to be better in pass blocking, which is the area where Moss is clearly better. But as far as rushing the ball goes, they're both fine. In a different offense not built around the passing game, either of them would be 1000 yard backs.

What most other teams have to do is like a gambler putting his house, all his money, and his car on the line for a bet, and he won't find out if that bet paid off for two or three years. In the meantime he might see some new attractive wagers, but he can't put anything down on them because he needs whatever cash he has left to pay rent and buy groceries. The Bills did this, and won big. Did Miami, when it picked Tua? No one seems sure. The Jets picked a very good prospect in Sam Darnold, and ruined him. The Cardinals picked a very good prospect in Josh Rosen, and ruined him. Most young QBs get ruined this way, so it's a gamble for them too, one they really have no control over. If Josh Allen didn't work out, Beane would have set the franchise back by at least five years. We'd be back looking for cast-offs or limited-talent guys or lower first round picks, spinning our wheels. Beane would be working somewhere else, and so would McDermott. It's almost impossible to overstate how important and significant it was that Allen works so hard in the offseasons to improve his game.

James Harris had a rocket launcher for an arm. Maybe as strong as Josh Allen, I'm not sure. But the problem was that Harris threw rockets when he needed to throw touch passes, and that seemed hard for him. Also the team around Harris just wasn't very good, and the Bills traded their good receivers. Also I'm sure he had to deal with racism that we would find hard to believe today. He had a middling career after he left Buffalo, another promising player whom we couldn't develop. Hmmm. My Boy Scout troops never did ANYTHING with Girl Scouts.

It always seems to me that the teams with the best records get the most reasonable schedules. The teams trying to get going are the ones who face a murderers' row in the first month or so, like the Bills did a couple of years ago. What I'd like to see is an easy start, putting the tough games into the middle, and then letting the Bills play easier games down the stretch. I'd like to see the Bills play Miami in Miami early, and in Buffalo late in the year. In fact all the warm-weather city teams should be in Buffalo in December. Miami and NE are going to be a lot better this year, but the Jets are still going to suck, so I would prefer to see the Bills open against Miami and/or NE to get wins there before those teams figure things out. Buffalo can play the Jets later on, with a good shot at winning both games. We actually almost lost to Bill Belichick last year. The Patriots almost won despite Cam Newton, not because of him.

Looking at that old tape, I had to shake my head at the talent on that team. A lot of the holdover guys simply weren't as good as they'd been, but they had been so good before that no one wanted to see them go. Unfortunately some of the wrong guys were let go. Ron McDole was deemed too old by Rauch, who traded him to Washington, and he played great there for several more years. Haven Moses, they said, wouldn't block, so they traded him to Denver where he was really good. Marlin Briscoe led the league in receptions, or nearly did, but he was traded to the Dolphins. But the core of the team, the culture of the team, from the championship years, was gone. The Bills of 68-72 were losers and they couldn't get it turned around. They had good players but still made such terrible mistakes. A lot of NFL teams, including the Bills in most years, had lineups studded with good players but no team culture of winning. Younger fans might not appreciate the miracle of McBeane, not just getting good players, but establishing a culture of winning.

The rules were different back then. What we see as fouls, people cheered as tough hits. Back then, players were smaller and slower, and collisions not as deadly. The rules changed as the players developed the capacity to hurt or kill each other. The Raiders deserved their reputation for dirty, aggressive play, with Jack Tatum deliberately trying to cripple receivers who came across the middle (and he did just that with Darryl Stingley, a Patriot). People look back at those days in the NFL as a man's league, with toughness and courage more important than today. I think that's nuts. Players are human beings, and they deserve to walk away from the game when their time is over. His coach, Rauch or maybe someone who replaced him, said he was going to use OJ as a decoy. Seriously. So Simpson wasn't very productive or dominant at first, and as I recall a halfback (as they were called then) named Calvin Hill, for Dallas, stole OJ's thunder. It wasn't until Lou Saban came in, the Bills rebuilt their O line, and they decided to focus on running OJ, that things turned around. The lousy years from 68-72 made 73, with OJ getting 2004 yards and the Bills getting Rich Stadium, all the sweeter.

Playoff game wins and losses don't affect the order of draft picks.

Thanks for posting those. Brightened my day.

Ford was in front of the guy, so how this is considered "blind side" is a mystery.

Darren Waller, the tight end for the Raiders, also has a special combination of size, speed, and athleticism. And he's very good, but not the best tight end in the league. It takes a lot of work for even a total-package athlete to excel in the NFL. Maybe Pitts gets there, and maybe he doesn't. Defense wins by schemes and planning as well as player skills. The Bills have a very good defense that will probably get better through this year's draft, the return of Star, and the growth of Oliver and Epenesa. Just chill, baby. We'll be fine.

Several points: -- The Saints got screwed in their game against the Rams FAR worse than the Bills got screwed on the Cody Ford block. -- The Ford block was NOT a blind-side hit. Ford was in front and to the side of the defender. The defender had every opportunity to see Ford. The defender ran into Ford more than Ford ran into him. -- The second-half kickoff referee invention was worse than the Ford call. -- The Bills would have won on a previous play if (1) three of them had bothered to block one defender on the Josh Allen sweep, or (2) the defender who evaded those blocks and who tackled Allen with an illegal helmet to helmet hit, had been penalized. -- The Bills would have won if Milano had sacked Watson, instead of bouncing off of him, on the play where Watson's short pass got run almost to the end zone, setting the game winning field goal. I do not agree that by losing this game, the Bills were motivated to get better. It was clear all season that we needed better WRs, and Beane would have made the Diggs trade whether we had won that game or not. Also, there were Bills on that team who weren't on the team the next year, and they deserved a chance to play again.

That blind-side block call was the second-worst of the game, the worst of course being the decision to let the Texans off the hook for botching the second half kickoff return. At that point, the refs just got out their Ouija board and made something up to keep the pro-Texan networks happy.

I'm beginning to think this Beane guy might know what he's doing.

At this point I think Beane will be drafting for 2022 and 2023. So if you want to guess where he'll go in the draft, look at which key players are likely to leave after 2021 and 2022. The roster looks solid all around. He's accumulating excess O linemen as FAs whom he'll trade for draft picks to desperate teams during training camp. (The only time this went wrong was when he traded away Wyatt Teller to Cleveland.) Beane wants to build a dynasty. He's not going all-in on any particular year. He wants to be a consistent 11 or 12 game winner, year in and year out, which makes it easier to pop up to a championship one of those years.

A big question will be whether Antonio Williams can pass block. In this offense, THAT'S job one.

You can have all the great ingredients in the world, but if you don't know how to cook, it won't taste very good.

As for drafting a guy with an injury in college, I have two words: Thurman Thomas. Unfortunately there are a lot of other guys who didn't pan out. As with many things, this is a crap shoot.

Should be a lucky break for the Bills, playing the NFCE. The other three divisions first place teams would be a lot tougher games.

Signing Hollister does not preclude obtaining Ertz or some other high-skill TE. Lots of FAs don't make the final cut. That said, if Hollister can fill a role on the team, I wish him all the best. Paul Costa?

This is like a marriage where both the husband and wife figure they can do better. Lots of fish in the sea. So they agree to a separation, then both find the other fish aren't so great. Back together, but the damage is done.

McKenzie can stay put, make a lot of money, and have a lot of fun as a productive part of a winning team. Or he can move, make a little more money, and watch his career crash and burn when the Chicago QB can't throw passes to him in stride. So many players leave a situation where they just fit right to chase dollars where they don't fit. I like him as a member of the Bills and I hope he stays.

It sure would be nice to get a little payback for Gilmore...