BADOLBILZ

PSA If you don't follow the draft or college football in general like @st pete gogolak don't try to drop zingers about the draft years later. The issue wasn't whether Beane could get to Justin Jefferson in round 1. It wasn't a surprise that he was available at the Bills draft position. The unanticipated was that Jefferson would turn into a true WR1. Let alone the best WR in the NFL. So rather than drop a cringey fail-zinger just take the layup. The issue that forced Beane to pick the low hanging fruit of Diggs in that WR-rich draft was his insistence on reaching up for need at a non-premium position with Cody Ford in the draft prior instead of taking a chance on the high ceiling WR prospects like DK Metcalf and AJ Brown.

Yeah I am guessing @Royale with Cheese is trying out a new technique. Like when Dice put out "The Day The Laughter Died" and refused to tell the nursery rhymes to the crowd. An artist has to explore. Personally, I am going to dabble back into "sub-illumination" the rest of the offseason. Which is understating an overwhelming strength in your argument to disorient your adversary. They badly want to tell you that you are wrong but to do so they have to actually address a fact that damns their side of the argument to do it. Like "what do you mean, Allen had 38 total TD's last year, he was awesome"

If Terry Pegula knew just a *little* bit more about football this could have been our fate as Bills fans. The fact that he didn't and started to get a taste of the embarrassment with the Rex debacle inclined him to turn ops over to McDermott and Beane. Fortunately Pegula's sporting confidence was in his hockey opinions otherwise establishing an all-time NHL record for consecutive seasons of missing the playoffs may have equally manifested itself on the football field as well. These super-rich new owners like Tepper all in some from seem to think that they can use their business acumen to get over on all these other owners even though they've rigged it to prevent their business tactics from impacting the standings. It's like a right of passage for them to gently advise and then watch the new guy run around in circles and tire himself out if he wants to.

Every one of those players you mentioned cost A LOT to acquire/sign. Whaley was a good pro personnel man. He didn't have full control of football OPS and the checkbook like McBeane were given by Pegula so he ended up operating with a smaller budget. So in addition to getting credit for signing future All Pro's Hyde and Poyer to great deals here are some of Whaley's other pro personnel gems: Tyrod.........$2M deal turned in a Pro Bowl season Lorenzo Alexander........ $885K turned into 12.5 sacks 76 tackles 22 QB hits and an All Pro second team Zach Brown........$1.25M lead NFL in tackles and also All Pro second team Try as he might Beane hasn't had even one value signing pan out anywhere close to those 5. Beane is the much better GM and more specifically a tremendous executive/confidence man...........but there isn't any comparison with regard to pro personnel(which was Whaley's specialty).

Yeah what the diminishing returns at WR have done is reduce Allen's effectiveness as a passer and put a lot of hard miles on his body. Allen broke out in 2020 but that wasn't supposed to be the pinnacle of his career............that's just what it's turned out to be. He hasn't even come very close to matching that year as a passer in any regard.........passer rating, completion %, TD% or INT% you name it he has been significantly worse. His passing yardage per game in 2023 was over 30 yards less than 2020...........at some point the fact that the good things are trending down and the bad things are trending up matters. The common denominator in the decline has been the consistent decline in the quality of receiving targets.

I am envisioning a Vikings board with someone posting that story about the 2021 49ers WR coach telling Trent he should be starting over Brandon Aiyuk. Politics! 😂

Thanks but I liked @FireChans "don't p!ss on our heads and tell us it's raining better" though. It's a message board we are going to draw distinctions between winning SB's versus getting beaten in the divisional round every year. If you think it's all the same level of accomplishment.........that's your prerogative to feel that way but the objective of the game is, in fact, to win the SB. The standard is the standard and accepting that and "not enjoying" the ride are not necessarily the same thing. Not that this past season was a joy ride for everyone involved with or following the Bills. I mean ask Ken Dorsey if he'd have liked to have DHop.

They hadn't exhausted their ability to create space by any means. You have to understand this by now, don't you? It's all entertainment to me. Winning a SB doesn't change my fandom one bit but it's the objective of playing the game so I'd like to see them reach that. So save your "enjoy the ride" for whoever is riding you. Speaking of which where is @Sherlock Holmes? I miss his commentary.

They aren't really comparable though.........DHop is in another tier altogether and is a true outside receiver and 14-15 yards per reception type deep threat. There would have been no redundancy with DHop going into 2024 as DHop can excel at either outside position and Gabe would have been on the way out. Samuel would have even actually been an excellent addition to a Diggs/DHop/Shakir mix(knowing Diggs and/or DHop would be on their way out in 2026) and at $8M aav it wouldn't necessarily have been an either-or situation with their AAV's only combining for around $20M. The problem with Samuel is that he isn't really a guy you can just line up outside every down. His versatility is a selling point but his inability to be a "one" at either outside spot is why his career production is more modest than his athleticism and metrics like the separation and initial route speed numbers posted in this thread would suggest it should be. Yeah, the QB matters but for top starters like DHop the quality of QB doesn't show up in the form of tamped down stats. I know we have a lot of people out there who want to poo-poo the importance of the X position but having strength there forces defense's to defend a much bigger field. Samuel isn't really a big threat downfield. He's just not. I like his addition a lot and at $8M I don't expect him to be a stud but he gets small downfield. And if defense's don't fear your deep throw ability they will start squatting and taking away the YAC potential on shorter throws. That's how the NFL works.

Yeah not getting DHop was just idiotic. Hopkins was extraordinary AGAIN in 2023 despite a totally unstable QB situation. I like Samuel and the nice thing is that he likely has that 600 yard kinda "floor" but might also have the upside to be a poor man's Diggs replacement in 2025 if they decide to cut bait from Stefon. It just would have been so much simpler to have a full size outside WR like Hopkins. I understand there was some risk with Hopkins but his skillset was pretty unique and man..............could that offense have been explosive.

Yeah, as I said, just too expensive at this stage of his career. Bills can re-visit this in 24 months when the Jags release him to save cap space.

There is a lot of WR talent in this draft..........but if you want(and I quote you) "the best player" you better trade up because you are looking at WR 6-8 at pick #28. I already addressed the speed issue. The Bills sorely lack elite speed and a deep threat but even if you have that in house those are traits you can stack. That's not what McConkey is. He isn't going to be a 20 yards per reception threat like DeSean Jackson was entering the NFL. If the draft dropped off at WR after McConkey and if upcoming drafts looked bereft of WR talent then maybe you don't worry about the redundancy of short-intermediate receivers but that's not the case. I want traits that can elevate the offense to another level. Maybe McConkey turns out to be that guy to replace Diggs but it's not like the cupboard is bare at 6' short-intermediate WR after he's off the board. And next year's draft will be excellent at WR. And the following. And then the 2026 draft will be off the chain at WR. There are a lot of them coming.

What if McConkey is off the board? He's Garrett Wilson 2.0 right? I think I'm being pretty clear..........we already have a T-Rex armed slot guy capable of putting up close to 1K yards in Shakir as well as Diggs whose catch radius and range downfield is getting smaller by the year. I don't want 3 short/intermediate receivers on the field all the time. If I am taking a 6' tall guy and he doesn't run a 4.21 then he better be pushing Diggs off the roster in 2025 because I don't want to have to choose between Diggs, pick #28 or Shakir coming off the field when the wet snow is falling like that Cinci playoff loss or the wind is blowing the ball around like in the Baltimore playoff win. A big X is a requirement in Buffalo, IMO.

You are moving the goal post. You WANT to build a WR corps to play in a dome. That is what you are advocating because you like the strategy. The player you are describing though is Adonai Mitchell. If they think that his personality is a fit. I won't be devastated if they picked Ladd McConkey at 28 but as a smaller catch radius, low production player entering the NFL he damn well better be the Diggs replacement in 2025. I don't want a WR corps in Buffalo without a better, big body X receiver option than Gabe Davis turned out to be. It's just a huge advantage to have that size outside in late season Highmark stadium weather.

That's excellent for those teams but I do want a star receiver who is big and has an extra gear to track down an overthrown ball for the Buffalo Bills..........because being accurate downfield in Miami is different than doing so in Buffalo. From the wind/rain/cold to Josh Allen's inconsistent ball placement to the crowned field the Bills need a big, downfield target to provide a larger catch radius IMO. And if you have to have one out there he might as well be a good one.

Would be nice. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/titans-land-calvin-ridley-could-star-receivers-arrival-spell-the-end-to-deandre-hopkins-era-in-tennessee/

If they reach for a safety in round 2 in a bad safety class.........after 28 starting safeties just got dumped on the free agent market simultaneously.......then Beane really should find a new line of work.

The problem with your plan is that it's a bad draft for DE and the DT class that was supposed to be very strong looks mediocre as well. I am all for getting young but the strength of this draft is WR/OL/CB. And those classes are REALLY good. They are going to have to throw at least a couple draft picks at the DL at some point whether they are worthy of the selection at that point or not.........but most of the picks should go to the strong positions in this draft to actually benefit from getting younger.

He's a really low end CB2, though. He does what he can do OK........but you are also pretty boxed in wrt what you can do with Dane out there. We can laugh but Beane used to hand out $6M+ contracts to backup LB's and DB's left and right when he was a greenhorn.

Yeah realizing how mediocre this DL draft class is I have assumed that they would add 3 free agent DL but I thought it would be something like Jones+Clowney+Calais Campbell..........with all 3 coming in around $7M. They are still pretty in line with that with Jones and Epenesa. Armstead, coming off two seasons of modest production, probably shouldn't command any more than a more productive guy like Campbell but being 30 instead of 38 and having played so well in the playoffs........he probably will. His upside is still All Pro if he can get right. I don't understand what the hell Tennessee is trying to do with their roster..........so I am hoping TN trades Hopkins and a 6th to Buffalo for a 5th.

Unfortunately the 2 first round and 2 second round picks that Beane used on DL from 2019 to 2021 didn't alter their destiny either. I'm not sure we aren't conflating over-investing in the DL with under-investing in the WR corps though. We are alarmed that we can't sack Mahomes and Burrow in the playoffs but if we have better receiving targets those matchups become a tossup IMO because THEY can't get to Josh Allen when he's playing well either.

I blame Buddy Nix. He had the jack@ssed idea of passing on QB prospects until he'd built up the roster. Back then, QB's were so scarce you HAD to get them when they presented themselves. You could go multiple drafts without even ONE emerging. By the time Buddy determined they were ready for a QB it was a bad QB draft and he threw a pick at EJ Manuel and turned the mess over to Whaley. Whaley had the right idea propping up his young QB with an elite WR talent. It works. But they brought Watkins onto a rudderless ship with no leadership AT ALL in the WR room and he went from a guy at Clemson who was seen as a gamer to a guy in the NFL who was just cashing checks. Anquan Boldin was a UFA in 2014 and his and Watkins' families had ties in southwest FL but the cash-to-the-cap Bills weren't going to pay the then-valued Boldin to mentor Watkins. When McD came in they brought Boldin in to mentor Watkins but it was much too late. The Bills really wasted Watkins.......he was a helluva talent and his body wasn't busted up when they drafted him but it was by the time he left.

A sign from God?

I can't see him taking little enough to fit the Bills but the connection isn't news if you follow TSW's BADOLBILZ.

It's an excellent OL class in general. They can draft interior OL later and have their choice of some prospects with starting potential. Having not gotten that comp pick in round 3 and subsequently only having 2 top 100 picks I don't foresee them taking a center with one of them.