BADOLBILZ

The 2017 Bills were the worst point differential AFC team to make the playoffs in almost 30 years. His decisions to trade Dareus and bench Tyrod blew up in his face big time. They needed some incredible luck to back-in at 9-7. That was just a fluke. But you need a little luck when you are a nobody HC trying to turn around a team with a terrible losing culture. They got it. Since then he's proven he's organized and his process works if you have a great QB. That should net him a top 10 ranking.

Tankathon has them drafting 6th in first mock! https://www.tankathon.com/nhl/mock_draft

Yeah Pittsburgh getting a little better and Miami getting a little worse is certainly good for Buffalo. As always, the Bills likely need to avoid the typical McDermott mid-season swoon to earn home field and the bye for the first time.........but if the Chiefs and Ravens can go 4-2 in division that could be the difference.

Only circumstantial evidence was needed against OJ and the Patriots for court and punishment. By your standard, no "actual" proof just a lot of circumstantial evidence. You are just being obstinate pretending court and a lost draft pick means anything more. What I didn't know at the time when I presumed the NFL would be asked to look into this.....and what you conveniently ignore......is that the spring 2017 Panthers were covering up one of the biggest ownership scandals in league history. Jerry Richardson would be forced by the league to put the team up for sale later that same year when the scandal got too big to contain. They weren't in any position that May/June to be demanding an investigation of their former DFO Brandon Beane even if they felt aggrieved.

1) In the same way that the evidence of any Patriots cheating or the murders OJ was accused of was just circumstantial. We don't know. 2) The common knowledge part was that the Panthers believed the Bills had accessed their draft information.........don't conflate that with any other part of the argument. 3) Whether you had a point other than to argue......we don't know. It's your word against evidence that suggests otherwise. 4) As for maligning Beane's character..........he's a high ranking executive executive in a bloodsport renowned for it's greed........the NFL generates $20B+ annually......lying and manipulating is part of his job. Even telling fans that your organization doesn't have the financial ability to make any big moves and then signing a Von Miller to a $20M aav deal was lying and manipulating. Expecting him to be different behind closed doors or with people he's negotiating with would be stupid.

We've actually probably had a few but they likely got deleted. There was a period of time when some people thought that posting a "f#ck this place, I'm outta' here" farewell rant on a message board had gravity and didn't just make them look like a hilarious quitter. Had to be an insincere thank you or two in there at some point.

"We all" was mostly from the Carolina end. When your team is the one stealing information it's considerably less of an issue from your perspective. See Bills fans fixation on perceived Belichick-era Pats cheating against Buffalo. Anything Buffalo Bills complaint related was a non-issue to NE fans for almost 20 years let alone the period where an employee of theirs was believed to have recorded other teams signals. We technically never had any proof whatsoever that the Patriots used any information they stole against the Bills. So I guess they didn't. Right? There are always going to be those who will disbelieve the obvious despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence. You don't think McDermott used Carolina draft intel that was shared with him and you believe that Beane was totally unaware that he would be the Bills GM for those 4 months. That's yours to believe. Personally, if I thought I might be getting the job with my hometown team to work with people I know I would probably hold out for that job rather than join a team that just executed about 40(?) free agent acquisitions/draft picks/UDFA's/futures signings etc.. that I didn't have any input on in the previous 4+ months. The first season on my record I had little to even do with the roster construction. What's not to like about that? But if the glove doesn't fit.....Chans must acquit.

Radim. Gradim. Elevadim. Tradim.

If you don't believe what was at the time common knowledge then feel free to research it. Those in their organization felt the Bills had inside information to know when to trade in front of them. DURING the draft. It was a larger point of discussion in Carolina. To quote @HappyDays at the time: "Things have really changed since McDermott took over. The guys we traded up for didn't visit with us here. They aren't from schools we usually draft from. They supposedly were on Carolina's board and their assistant GM is supposedly coming here. Sounds to me like we threw out the scouting reports our team had and went with what Beane and McDermott knew from their time in Carolina. This is absolutely nuts that this is happening." It was very un-Billsy to be the pointed end of screwing.

And the other 2 were one person.

Beane telling PFF the Panthers weren't going to pay for content because he didn't like a "free agency player grade" does NOT track well with the notion that teams don't place any value on "player grades". It's always been a fools argument that modern GM's wouldn't find some value in that data. If society didn't value information just because there was "subjectivity and assumed knowledge" baked into the results then why would we value any profession that "practices"?

I didn't know anything about it until after the Panthers complained about it.........so no I didn't create the accusation. What do you suppose the consequence would be for, say, a leaked text or email of the Panthers draft board sent by Beane to McDermott prior to the draft? There is your answer on why we don't have proof and likely never will. And why wouldn't the Panthers really push the issue? Well given what we now know about Jerry Richardson's organization it's very likely that McBeane knew enough that the Panthers didn't have an appetite to get in a pissing match with them over a lil' draft intel that might have cost them a terrible WR and what looked like a good young guard prospect.

I never said Beane had taken over as Panthers GM at that time. You are misconstruing what Monson said in not clarifying that Beane was not the actual GM at the time of the Kalil signing. Hurney succeeded Gettleman. My timeline was wrong on WHEN Hurney took over and DG's cancer diagnosis and that having anything to do with his departure as GM though, that is correct. What Beane's responsibilities were was is what I knew and cared about knowing. And I had gotten that info from someone I've known for most of my life who was in a similar football executive role who knew Beane in Carolina. Beane was a very important person in the Panthers front office at the time because Gettleman didn't want to handle the non-football GM responsibilities. Those duties were becoming an increasingly larger part of the workload. Very similar to the Whaley situation in Buffalo.......except the Panthers owner was a true football man.......a literal former player who had been there at the teams inception. Beane was a great fit because the Pegula's were lost on how to run an NFL team with a road scout as GM. They had literally lived in Orchard Park during the 90's SB's and yet the first time they even attended a Bills game was AFTER they bought the team. To say they were NFL novices is an understatement and their early tenure was their first real embarrassment as sport owners. They were tanking to get superstars in hockey and that was a very popular approach so they hadn't yet earned the ire they now own on the hockey end. Their embarrassment and uncertainty on the football side created the environment for McBeane to take full control of the Bills.

It was common knowledge here at the time that the Panthers believed that. Do you really not recall that? The whole thing caught Bills fans and the Buffalo media by surprise. It wasn't a Buffalo generated narrative but pretty damn obvious, pretty damn quick in hindsight. You gotta' remember the context here was the Bills being Billsy. The idea that they would keep Whaley around for a year or two even if he didn't seem to mesh with McDermott was entirely plausible. That had been the case with the two prior HC's Whaley worked with. The sham McBeane pulled off was actually very clever. Get the intel you want from the scouts you trust. That was the only way they get the finished board and evaluations. Like I said.........the flaw was McD allowing KC to trade up for a QB in your spot. It's likely blocked them from reaching 2-4 SB's.

Yeah @GunnerBill answered that. The Panthers realized after the draft that the Bills had their draft board and that McDermott was using it like his own. Which meant he had a good idea when he needed to move up ahead of them to get those players for he and Beane's operation.