BADOLBILZ

1) The scouting process doesn't start or stop. It's always going on. Players are constantly being evaluated once they enter the college game. This is lost on people who don't watch college football. They think that 90% of these players just appear in the season before their draft year. Whaley was big on 5 star recruits. He'd been following these guys..........along with a million avid college football fans..........since they were juniors in HS. Some sooner. A few players burst on the scene but it's really a handful. 2) 4 months is an eternity to put a bunch of high profile college QB's like Mahomes and Watson under the microscope. Trading that pick to the Chiefs with 2 high profile QB prospects on the board like that is the most regrettable personnel mistake in franchise history. It made 13 seconds possible. It has blocked them from 2 SB appearances and counting. That's the net result of McDecision making and he and the Pegula's playing it inexplicably coy with their GM spot.

The Steelers are an entirely different organizational setup..........the ownership there are actual football people who are also skilled in the politics of the league. They don't need an "executive" GM to run the entire show like the Pegula's needed Brandon Beane to be. The Steelers have functioned fine with a road scout type GM like Colbert......that's how it's been there for a LONG time. Whaley was far more qualified as a talent evaluator than Beane. Beane had just dabbled a bit in scouting for two years prior to being hired. He was a director of football ops in Carolina.........which is to say he took care of the actual details that keep the organization functioning for the GM. Though I am sure he's improved in the 5 years on the job, the thing Beane is probably least qualified to do is the actual player scouting..........which is why he's surrounded himself with a lot of well regarded personnel men to help him make the player decisions.

McDermott inherited a talented roster that should have won at least 11 games or more in 2016. That part is due to Whaley/Nix drafting and free agent choices. But they didn't try to win with that talent.......they instead got rid of all of the prime aged young talent(Gilmore, Woods, Watkins,Darby, Dareus) that had contract leverage over the team and just kept all of the older players to do a soft re-build without tanking. The 2017 offseason was mostly McDermott and likely also Beane surreptitiously, knowing he was taking over as GM after the draft, because the Bills wanted the Panthers draft info. Which is likely why they didn't select a QB in 2017. Not the nonsensical excuse that they didn't have time to scout QB's.......McDermott was hired in early January like any other new coach. Carolina wasn't scouting QB's because they didn't need one. Whaley and Terry Pegula reportedly really liked Mahomes but McDermott was given full organizational control so they traded back to help out his good buddy Andy Reid. Regardless, Whaley had little to do with the successes or failures of that offseason. Micah Hyde might be the only exception, but he was a pretty easy evaluation as a free agent so who knows. Also the capital they acquired from the Chiefs was used to trade up for Tremaine Edmunds. Allen was not acquired with help of any of the Chiefs picks.

They've been good in round 1. In round 2 under Beane.........they haven't selected a productive player yet.

Imperial Concubine chicken wing recipe dates back to 750 AD so hundreds is an understatement.

Yeah, I suspect Williams didn't do the work in the offseason to repeat his stellar 2020 season. He played better in the second half of the season, which supports that belief. I suspect Saffold would have been in the exact same boat as Williams as a UDFA had Beane not thrown him that generous life preserver. There was no bidding war. He wanted to play with Kromer and somehow his agent got a $6M deal from Beane thisquick. He was paid quite handsomely for a 35 year old OG that his last team wanted to move on from after a season where he looked to be in notable decline both in performance and availability. If he isn't any better in Buffalo than he was in TN last year and is still coming out of every game injured for a couple series then expect the boo birds to be out on him. Our hope is that his shoulder heals and their strength and conditioning team can coax one last season out of him. Of course we were told that Emmanuel Sanders definitely would have one left in him.......and that playing with Josh Allen for 17 games instead of the combination of tired Drew Brees and his injury replacements that Sanders would finish on a higher note than his 2020 season. But nope. That turkey was cooked in October and cold cuts by Thanksgiving.

Good question. There is going to be a lot of complex fabrication necessary and maybe they want to do it locally where Populous could control the output better. That is the kind of work that plant is designed to do.

Greg Van Roten RAS from 10 years ago The image you posted doesn't load on my apple devices so some might not see it either.

It was actually a modest 4 year build to get to the AFCCG..........we just had very low expectations as a fanbase. Light speed is having the #1 pick in 2020 draft and reaching the SB in the 2021 season like Cinci. Or maybe the LA Rams being a woeful 4-12 in 2016 and then reaching the SB in the 2018 season.

I don't know if it's been discussed but a friend of mine is with Dresser Rand..........they are closing their Olean plant in June and it's expected that Populous is moving in.

This. Except I would say talent/skill. Spencer Brown had talent. Skill not so much. Dion Dawkins had talent but his skill was diminished by illness. Mitch Morse has talent but the system wasn't helping him. Daryl Williams had proven talent but he appeared to come into the season inexcusably out of shape/unprepared. Cody Ford, Ike Boettger and Jon Feliciano were definitely fighting an uphill battle against a lack of talent though. As for @HappyDays take about the organization "determining" that any issue with the offense was just coaching and preparation. There is a distinction between determining something or just deciding it. Determine by definition indicates that there is no doubt.

"At the very least"? Rodger Saffold is 5 years older than DW and missed 300+ snaps while battling a chronic shoulder injury in 2021........about 5 full games worth. Williams played 98% of Bills snaps with OG and OT versatility that Saffold doesn't have. PFF had thier performances graded about the same. The at the very least is "at the very least Aaron Kromer liked him".

I didn't say they were planning to use less disguise. As discussed..........they have played well in man coverage.........your "couldn't match up in man coverage" is technically false.........they were the top defense in the NFL. The issue against KC the past two years has been an inability to get pass rush. As I've said...........doesn't matter who is playing CB if the QB has 6 seconds to throw to an elite group of receiving talent.

I don't get depressed about football. It's a good time, whether you win or learn.

I wouldn't doubt that figure but it's kind of a throw away stat. As Beane said........they wanted to be able to play more press-man. The key to their defense is their ability to disguise coverages........34% some-kinda'-man is still low enough to merely be part of the designed confusion.........especially when you are often playing with enormous leads as the highest point differential team in the NFL. And with moderate exposure they've had great success in the past with press man even...........I remember when Kevin Johnson was here he ranked #1 or close to it in press man success rate. That certainly wasn't because he was Jalen Ramsey-esque. The disguise improves the success of ALL coverages.........if the pass rush is on time and forces quick throws. But if the rush isn't there, then it becomes athlete vs athlete in coverage. They drafted Elam, IMO because they want to be able to rely less on disguise and instead be able to matchup better when they run into that combination of elite QB/elite receiving talent but also an offense that doesn't let them get to the passer in a timely fashion. All of the investment in pass rush and now the "traits" add at CB are basically the Bills trying to create a defense, on paper at least, that doesn't have any inherent vulnerability. Whether that degree of effort/investment is worthwhile at the expense of offensive investment is questionable.

Yeah Jerry's insistence on a weak HC combined with the distractions and immense pressure of playing for the Cowboys tends to neutralize some remarkable drafting.

At least this hyped OL coach is actually good and we saw it with our own eyes. The hype around Juan Jesus Christillo when McDermott first arrived was laughable.

That's not based much in fact. Go back and watch Tre White in the 2020 AFCCG in Kansas City. He was atrocious. His advanced stats were terrible enough but even that doesn't tell how badly he played that day because the game was over at halftime. If it had actually been a barn burner that day he would have been a barn full of straw. Great QB + Elite WR1 + No Pass Rush > ANY CB1 Assuming that he would have been a difference maker in another game where the pass rush was ineffective is nonsensical. How many times have we seen DB's slid into the system and the defense not miss a beat? There are ways to use Tre White and have him play GREAT...........putting him on Tyreek Hill or Mike Evans and asking him to cover for 6 seconds without getting spun is NOT such a situation. What was needed was for them to fix the finishing aspect of their pass rush. They hopefully did that with Von Miller and Settle/Phillips expenditures along with Oliver and Rousseau maturing. If Tre returning and Elam being in the mix additionally improves them that's great but if the pass rush falls flat again then the coverage will fail against that elite QB/elite WR combo........ regardless.

I'm sure it's been said somewhere in the 30 pages..........but can't Case Keenum hold? Seems to me he has done it before in his long run as a backup but perhaps I'm misremembering. The Araiza pick isn't anything they should go out of their way to make work........ he's just a developmental punter with a powerful leg.............but for holding what's wrong with having an actually offensive player handling the football? If nothing else it gives the defense reason to have pause about over-pursuing the kick block and ignoring responsibilities and potentially getting jacked on a fake. I mean train your punter up but I think a QB with a guaranteed roster spot should be ale to be the primary.

Daryl Porter was a really good special teams player..........lost his focus after an emotional moment where Rob Johnson drove them into FG range and Christie seemingly won the game.........but on the ensuing KOR he didn't stay in his lane and HR Throwback happened. Both situations are ultimately on the staff to great extent because they didn't have the detail attended to. I know that's a high bar.......maybe every other staff but 1 is vulnerable to that kind of mental lapse....but that's the difference between a Belichick and everyone else and that's a good standard to have. SB XLIX where Malcom Butler picks that pass off in the end zone for the shocking victory..........the Patriots had practiced that play on Friday and were prepared to execute in the biggest moment of the game. Belichick had Pete Carroll scouted and pegged and knew he couldn't hold his water in the big moment.........he kept his nickel defense on the field despite it seeming like a certain run situation with Lynch in the backfield. Bills have an elite QB talent.........McDermott has room for improvement...........not saying most others don't.........but they need him to graduate to another level in the playoffs to reach their potential, IMO.

Yeah Davis is the answer. People are just assuming that he's already there but he only put up about 35 yards per game last season before blowing up in the playoffs. They probably need 1,100 yards from that WR2 spot just to match the 1,100+ split production of last year..........which frankly was something of a disappointment for the passing game, with Allen falling to 6.7 yards per pass attempt. That was primarily because of atrocious pass protection but also a lack of speed/yac in the WR corps. They didn't exactly attack those issues with blue chip replacements but that was a choice.........so we should expect those issues to be fixed. The bar is pretty high at WR in the NFL now.........Cinci has 2 1K+ WR's in Chase and Higgins and another over 800 in recent 1K producer Tyler Boyd. The Bills should be back closer to 8 yards per pass attempt and around 5,000 yards passing for Allen and they aren't likely getting there without Gabe Davis becoming a second 1,000 yard receiver, IMO.

Yep. And if they actually become a more multiple defense........capable of going back and forth from heavy zone to a lot of press-man usage based on opponent.........then Elam is a premium position pick. If that defensive plan fails and they end up having to stick with what worked well with Levi...........even if Elam plays fine in zone concepts, and it's hard to say if he will because he didn't do it much at Florida...............then it becomes a question of whether they invested a $20M kinda' personnel chip into a guy at a position they could have filled with a journeyman type.

That kinda' tackling is why Elam was the 3rd CB off the board. You gotta' wrap Chapelle UP B!

It's the best way to explain their tunnel vision on getting a press-man cornerback and really the only explanation for the Bernard pick, IMO. My one oft-vocalized complaint about the defense under McDermott has been that for all of the investments they've made in defensive personnel........and all of the continuity they have had in the back 7............they haven't been able to make broad schematic adjustments for different opponents. Against KC the Bills have sort of fallen into the rut that Pittsburgh had against New England for so many years...........the Steelers lack of ability to mix man coverages with their preferred zone looks made them easy pickings for Brady. I'm sure the Bills were very aware that it was a weakness but the way Cinci adapted their defense to win two road games and reach the Super Bowl probably underscored the value in that. The question, of course, is whether they are robbing Peter on offense to pay Paul on defense.

2019 DK Metcalf would have been the right choice in hindsight. He's been a star since day 1. Knowing what teams know today of the value of WR's...........Metcalf and AJ Brown definitely go round 1 and in hindsight Terry McLaurin as well. The Oliver pick made sense despite being very undersized because it was presumed that he'd quickly turn into an elite interior pass rusher. He has gradually gone form a solid player to very good one........but still hasn't turned into a finisher. He may finally become that guy in year 4. Undersized 3 Techs are not in short supply though so if you take one early you would hope that they produce big.