BADOLBILZ

I'm not trying to run Beasley down but it's more than semantics.........his selection as an All Pro was very generous of voters..........there ended up being 5 WR's on the Second Team instead of the normal 3..........and Beasley's numbers paled in comparison to the others.........all of whom either have multiple All Pro nods or project to LIKELY contend for multiple more. Beasley had a tremendous season by the standard of his previous 8........but 82 for 967 isn't going to get you an All Pro selection very often........not sure when the last All Pro WR to not AT LEAST get 1,000 was.....and it's less than likely that he will repeat that production in year 10. I'd probably put him as the Bill who is least likely to be able to repeat his high production of last season.

I agree. The problem is that the organization has shortchanged Rodgers for a long time...........the Jordan Love pick wasn't an isolated incident.............it was just the latest non-effort to stock the cupboard for him. The Pats did that plenty with Brady over the years as well.........but they had the genius HC to overcome a razor thin group of weapons around TB12 for "most" of those years. But some of the years they didn't win a SB.........was basically only because their skill players around Brady just weren't good enough.

It's weekly and just during the season. And they can be cut at any time.

No Beasley WAS an All Pro. Last regular season. He had never sniffed that level of credit before and wasn't playing at an All Pro level the last time he was on the field in the playoffs. His age, his modest career production prior and the wear and tear/injuries accumulated last season matter. This year is a new season.

I don't think there is actually an "All-In" sense of urgency this season. I think they looked at the options and determined that they will "be better off in the long run" if they hung onto cap space and exercised their draft picks instead of trading them........and of course, "hopefully" win a SB that way.........sorta' like the Bucks just did winning an NBA title...........instead of spending future cap space and trading picks for immediate help NOW. If it works..........that's great......it's the cake and eating it too. But in my years of experience watching teams do this..........it can end up putting an immense amount of pressure on your team as the window before significant change comes. The Chiefs are a tough obstacle........but the Bills have a good roster and continuity in the coaching staff.........there might not be a more ideal point. I'm watching what happens when you defer your best shot until later right now with the New York Yankees...........the owner has been making half a billion in profits annually since his father died(except for covid 20').........literally dwarfing the earnings of most of the teams in MLB..........and he's been using a Ralph Wilson-like "cash to the luxury tax cap" model hoping that the team can win every single season and pick up a couple WS titles along the way with a payroll that's lower than it was in 2004. All that has done is wratchet up the pressure on the organization as the window before a major re-organization is required gets smaller. Diminishing returns follow. Another example is Green Bay...........they have greatly wasted Aaron Rodgers career by half-stepping wrt the roster. Rodgers has dragged them deep into the playoffs many times.......but for most of the McCarthy era in particular they really refused to go all-in to get him a title. That is why he's so puckered about them drafting a replacement QB when they were on the precipice of another SB. They only seem interested in staying in contention and hoping they get all the breaks and win ONE.

They would likely miss him but Beasley hasn't earned the right to be considered a likely repeat as an All Pro performer..........he's had 2 seasons out of 9 in his career where he's even accumulated over 800 yards receiving.........and he took a beating last season and is coming off a rather tumultuous offseason.

They grossly overpaid for Norman. He was coming off a very poor season and any chance he had of having a successful bounce back was limited to a few teams/schemes. The roughly $3M-$4M OVER market that they paid Norman is an example of money that they then didn't have to spend on the roster this offseason. All the deals count. We have some folks on the board who like to say "it's not your money, why do you care" when there is an overpay.........obviously only a few people like maybe @zonabb ()care about the actual $ the player is getting........cap space is why it matters when they over extend for what a player has to offer.

No, the Chiefs did A LOT the offseason after they lost the 2018 AFCCG. They literally fired their DC.........replaced him with a 2x SB winning DC in Spagnuolo........they traded the AFCCG goat Dee Ford and traded FOR star pass rusher Frank Clark..........and added the big name star/leader in Mathieu and also added Bashaud Breeland........both were huge additions for them in their SB winning season and both gave the Bills fits last season. They didn't lose much. The Chiefs were VERY aggressive under the circumstances. And they could have easily chosen not to be aggressive..........they were clearly the best team in the AFC in 2018 and they were upset by the narrowest of margins.....in OT of the AFCCG. That was a "1 play" game. The Bills looked outclassed in their AFCCG against KC..............if one team looked like it needed to be more aggressive it was the Bills this past offseason.......not the post 2018 season Chiefs.

Yeah his bro the famous MMA fighter lives in Ithaca and his dad is a pastor in Binghamton. They grew up and starred in sports in CNY. Still, relatively local.

Funny that the rest of the Bills OL under McNally kinda' sucked. Everyone has coaches........McNally was always a good OL coach but he also had one foot out the door when he was here. Calling the 2000-2010 era Bills a "nurturing environment" is hilariously wrong. As long as there has been football there have been people who become great despite not having your ideal conditions to do so. Suggesting otherwise is nutty. Josh Allen is and isn't an exception..........he is taking advantage of everything that he can to get better........that's awesome.........but he didn't have good instruction at the HS/JUCO/NCAA level........and that set his progress back............what he was able to do now is not possible for every NFL player that wants to rise to a great level.

Yeah if the player is healthy and chooses not to make himself available to the team then he doesn't get paid.......that's the same in all the "guaranteed" contract sports as well. But if you retire with time left on your deal in the NFL you don't become a free agent...........the team has to relinquish your rights. The Patriots never relinquished their rights to Gronk so they were able to trade him and a 7th to Tampa for a 4th last offseason. With retirements in the past the player in question didn't have such MASSIVE cap figures though. Obviously, Rodgers can't retire and the Packers then spend too much cap space to accommodate his salary, only to have him return/un-retire before the opener in September. If that kinda' cap shenanigans was allowed the Saints would have already done it. The Pack is going to have to keep enough salary flexibility to accommodate his(inevitable) return...........or relinquish his rights. They won't relinquish his rights, obviously. And if I were them I wouldn't take 3 first round picks and Bradley Chubb as compensation. Not enough. But we will see what the Pack does if that's how Rodgers plays it.

Honestly, this would probably be GOOD news for Buffalo. Denver instantly becomes a contender..........but the AFC is already deep enough with contenders that any 2-3 playoff games you need to win the AFC are going to be against stacked teams ANYWAY. Adding another doesn't mean you have to play an extra playoff game. It could mean the difference between the Chiefs cruising to the #1 seed yet again or the Bills getting the #1 seed or maybe at least a less confident/playoff-composed opponent getting it.

Yes.........the Packers have to take him off the books..........relinquishing his rights to save immediate cap space.........before he can sign with another team. Kyle Orton retired from the Cowboys because they wouldn't give him a raise..........the Cowboys released him to save the space.........and he then signed for more money with Buffalo a couple months later. The Packers won't relinquish his rights though.........if he doesn't show up I assume that they will be credited back his salary cap space anyway.........but not until the end of this season.

I like Sean Payton as a HC..........but people forget that he is very capable of fielding 7-9 teams. And that was WITH Drew Brees. Winston has talent but he couldn't get a very talented Bucs team to the playoffs despite throwing for 5,000 yard with a very talented group of skill players.

There is not ONE way for football players or teams to become great. Many come from very rough circumstances and turn those adverse "non-nurturing" situations into the fuel for their greatness. The most significant player the Bills developed in the drought era was Jason Peters..........a future HOF'er and greatly respected teammate..........that dude didn't give his best at Arkansas..........got sabotaged by his college coaches in the draft process...........went undrafted to a terrible organization.........and still became an All Pro LT in almost no time after only being a TE in college. Your corporate/self-help strategy sounds great........works for some...........but you can get nurtured by a figurative pair of grass-fed DDD teets and it ain't gonna' keep you from being dominated on the field by a guy like Peters.

The OP made a good point/comparison. But you are getting carried away. The Patriots dominated the league for nearly 20 years using a very different approach............it'll take a lot of "nurturing" for anyone to accomplish half of what they've done. Most NFL dynasties were built on competition for jobs, motivation by any means necessary and cold blooded management decisions.

If the Saints aren't just a bad football team this season then Sean Payton deserves a lot of credit. That last tweet about the sleepers the Saints are "very high" on reminds me of the talk around the Bills during the tear down under Donahoe: "Yes, the Bills lost Ted Washington......but they are "very high" on young DT Leif Larson......they think he was a steal in the 6th round of that draft and a better fit in Gregg Williams system."

Yeah Wagner is an interesting case in point as it relates to the Bills and their defense...........because the Seahawks went from being both the youngest team in the NFL and the SB champion in the same season..........to very flawed in just a couple years once they paid their defensive standouts. As it so happened, aside from Sherman, the big names on that defense were off-ball LB and safeties........and once they paid those guys they couldn't afford to roll the DL like they once used to and the defense went from great to middling(and worse). They sacrificed on the lines on both sides of the ball to pay big names that, in hindsight, really needed to be supported by excellent edge/island and interior DL play to field a championship type defense. That doesn't necessarily mean a "top 5" statistical defense.........but one that can support a high powered offense by rushing the passer or being great in coverage. They put the frosting before the cake, IMO. If the Bills win one SB like the Seahawks did.......then we could probably happily accept 5-7 years of Josh Allen trying to carry a flawed team to the WC or divisional round like what's been going on in Seattle..........but I think the lesson to be learned from the Seahawks is not to do what they did. You shouldn't fall in love with off-ball LB and safeties and have them eating up huge amounts of cap space.

The disparity in quality of ILB/MLB players between the AFC and NFC is huge. I understand why casual observers don't understand this.............but this can happen at a devalued position and it can not be reflected by the play of the teams in those conferences. Because defenses aren't built from the MLB outward anymore. They are built around edge rushers and lock down CB's. If the Bills intend their D to be built around their MLB as so many Edmunds excuse makers claim........and Edmunds doesn't improve significantly.........they will continue to be a paper tiger defense.

Which, unfortunately would leave them very thin on the outside in the event of an injury. Lot's of slot types on the depth chart but X's and Z's.......not so much.

The only high profile player the Bills brought in was 34 year old Emmanuel Sanders (to replace a guy they cut who had put up 1,000+ yards in 2019). I like some of the other, cheaper "flyers" they took in free agency...........but they weren't aggressive in acquiring dynamic new talent and they drafted at the back end of each round. Everybody drafts, guy. You could argue that the Bucks were more aggressive in their approach............they swapped out two *good* guards and some first round picks for a *better* guard in Jru Holiday..........but he didn't play up to the level he had at NOLA.......and that didn't tip the scales for them this season. Injuries in BOTH conferences........A TON of them........really cleared their path to victory. The 2021 Bucks might have been the dumbest NBA team to ever win a title LOL. But the playoffs laid out beautifully for them and they ended up knocking off a 5th seed in the conference finals and played a first time playoff team in the league finals. It came together perfectly for them. If the Bills win a SB in a "down" season for the NFL.........it still counts. Ben Roethlisberger won his first SB in a poorly played game against a less than epic opponent. Peyton Manning got his first against Rex Grossman. It can happen. Hopefully the Bills have a bunch of breakout players this season and can change the narrative that they haven't improved the roster but on paper they have done little to nothing to bridge the gap with KC.

It was literally "Mo's" that I quoted........but I'm just bustin' your balls because Moulds was a pretty arrogant character who I don't see accepting a goofy nickname. As I've said........the big regret in his career is not showing up ready to play football as a rookie: 1996 draft/season first round WR yardage production Terry Glenn 1132 Eddie Kennison 924 Keyshawn Johnson 844 Marvin Harrison 836 Eric Moulds 279 Moulds had more career production than most of them but they had a window in 1996 and him being the only 1st round WR who didn't show up to play really screwed the Bills and helped cause the step back in 1997. And fwiw.........he ended up with 1500 less career yards than 1996 second rounder Muhsin Muhammad.........and Muhammad had some doozy QB'd seasons. The underrated guy from that class was Terry Glenn............the most talented of the bunch(including Harrison) but could not stay healthy. Even so he only ended up with about 1,000 career yards less than Moulds and was still dynamic and dominating when Moulds was physically pedering out in 2005. Moulds is probably the most overrated Bills player ever. Very good player for a 5-6 year period........but to act like he was second or third only to studs like Randy Moss and TO is fantasy. Hell, Joe Horn might have been better in his prime and the only reason he's still remembered is for the cell phone TD celebration and now because his son was just drafted.

1998 was Flutie and Johnson as his QB.......not Jim Kelly. Unfortunately about half of his career highlights came in 1998 alone..........and there were plenty of dimes in there.........the perception that the Bills QB situation was bad from 1998-2000 is wrong. It was bad in 1997 but he was useless at that point anyway. What was left of his "prime" was over in 2003 when he got injured........which had nothing to do with QB play.......after that he still got fed the ball around 10x per game but just couldn't do as much with it. Most of the yards that he left on the table were in his first two seasons when his head was up his ass.

Yep. Having an outstanding one on a cheap contract will not prevent you from winning a SB. That's about all it really tells you in the grand scheme though.