BADOLBILZ

I really disliked it at first because it arose in defense of stupid comments from losing-culture-super-spreader/dog park douche-baggerist Stevie Johnson. But I always wanted Bills fans to basically create their own entity separate from the team itself.........kinda' like the way Cubs fans had long bonded to each other by embracing the shared experience of getting together and attending/watching their teams games even though they KNEW that the cheap-ass and usually incompetent Cubs ownership wasn't going to put a championship grade product on the field very often. Bills fans have united around it and that is a very important development, we can't have people like @Stank_Nasty blowing off December games because the games are meaningless.......so there needs to be an understood reason to be there beyond the results. "Bills mafia" as a standalone is (as @dayman says) about as corny as could be..........but SJ13 support aside its root is in sarcasm toward the comment from Schefter......which buys it some space. I found it amusing and inevitable that the Bills needed control of it.........and I don't blame them and since they are committed to winning I want them to make every cent they can off of it. Long term it has massive income potential because you can be 100% behind Bills Mafia even if you aren't pleased with the team itself. It's performance-proof. I've embraced it because it is in the best interest of the family.........as any honorable member should do.

Chandler Jones was an excellent use of a first round pick. Trading him was HIGHLY questionable..........but they didn't let him walk for nothing in return like the Bills did with Levitre and Byrd. They didn't have to......he had top positional value because he was a pass rusher. The Bills didn't have a choice........nobody was trading much(anything?) for a G or FS who were pending free agents. But then the Patriots are a different story altogether.........they were such an outlier in so many ways. Brady and Belichick played in 13 AFC Championship games together..........and they left A LOT on the table personnel wise. If they were as efficient with personnel/drafting as say......the Steelers?.......they probably win 10 SB's.

Pass rusher is the teams biggest need by far and highest position of need on the draft value list. QB/pass rusher/CB/LT/WR should be the early round priority positions for any draft.........if you don't find value at any of those positions then trade. I wouldn't be afraid to draft a WR if a great talent falls..........Beasley and Brown are 30 somethings next year and reaching end of deals. If a really tremendous TE prospect is there then great but those are so rare and hard to evaluate.........probably better off trading back and taking a couple swings in middle rounds and hope you find one. I wouldn't take a center that early.......they are maybe even easier than guards to find and most OL take 3 years to develop now so they better be pretty special to be worth the wait. The late first and second round draft that netted Wood, Levitre and Byrd looked great on paper but if you draft a player early and then they pan out great and you don't feel it's justified to pay them the market rate then they weren't good uses of those picks.

Agreed. Run defense is effort and technique. Success in the running game is about blocking. You can get players at DT and RB that give you a bit of an extra edge in those areas but at what expense? A DT not being athletic enough to rush the passer AT ALL or chase a Cam Newton down from behind and strip the ball out of his hands to save a game? Or a RB who is just good enough to tempt the play caller to take the ball out of the hands of a QB who is getting 9 yards per pass attempt in a game?

You really think passing and high scoring offenses are a temporary trend in the NFL? The players will be wearing flags and playing with a nerf ball before they go back to ground and pound, dude..........mom's just ain't signing their kids up for that game anymore. Indoors is the new outdoors.

@GunnerBill and I had this discussion a couple days ago in another thread. I feel like Beane will be inclined to go "Cody Ford" again and make the mistake of reaching for a need at a position that is easy to fill........in this case running back. It would be a mistake. The Bills aren't playing with house money........their roster isn't that exceptional without having a top 3 QB like Allen.........they are going to have plenty of need for players at big $ positions and not a lot of cap room to spend on them going forward. You take chances on those $15M-$20M positions early in the draft and trust your scouts to find players at the less valued positions later in the draft, in UDFA or in UFA where they tend to be values.

People are discounting the highlighted. You need some cap space to fill the roster with minimum salary players and sign draft picks. It's not just subtraction they will have to add back in as well. They are finally in a real jam.

Math? It will likely be a multi-year problem because of that. Their cap situation is extraordinary. Worse than the early 2000's Bills but the difference was the Bills new GM wanted to use a short term cap problem as an excuse to totally gut the team of it's players, systems and identity. Sean Peyton worked thru a 3 year run of 7-9 seasons prior to their recent run so the Saints might be willing to just do a couple year reset and try to keep their systems, identity and management structure in place.

The 1987 Bengals were 4-11. The Chiefs are the defending SB champs. The 2020 Bills outscored the 2020 Chiefs.........the Bills were second in the NFL and the Chiefs were sixth. I know people want to create parallels for different reasons...........to equate the team to one that went to 4 straight SB's.........or maybe to excuse them possibly losing this Sunday..........but there really aren't many parallels. The teams are so different..........coaching staffs so different.........the league itself is so different. People wanted to do the same thing in 1990 with the 60's teams.........it didn't really equate then either.

I'm not discrediting anything but if you as a fan NEED the national media to take note of you then it starts with your team having at least ONE playoff game where you silence the doubters by playing great. The Bills haven't played anywhere close to their best game yet. Otherwise if you need hype to appease you then they gotta' get to a Super Bowl at least. Very few fans or general ESPN sports media types can remember who lost in the past 2-3 conference championship games off the top of their head......some not even the teams that lost last year. But thanks for letting me know about the highlighted.........when I said that Indy and Baltimore were really good and could both possibly have made it to the NFCCG if they were in that bracket I wasn't aware that it was in part because their defenses were good.

Per Eric Wood: Boettger had cross trained himself to play all 5 positions as well. FWIW, that may have tipped the scales. I would have hated to see either Boettger or Teller dealt. The bad decision to draft Cody Ford ultimately forced the choice.

Almost done? He averaged 5.0 yards per carry on 200 carries last year! He may have hit a wall this year........it comes at a RB fast........but we haven't really been privy to that because he has rarely played on a RB heavy team. I'm not sure he's eligible to be signed but maybe CEH isn't going to make it back for the SB and the Chiefs reached out to his agent and got him released anticipating needing him.

Not material to my point. The Saints and Brees had their run........and THEN some. He could have retired 5 years ago and been a HOF'er. The protections given QB's 10 years ago probably bought Brees that extra 5 years of football.........and created a fake juggernaut of the Saints........dominate the regular season and then peder out when he was too tired to close the deal in January. Seen enough. If you want to feel bad for him/them after being in contention for most of the past 15 years then have at it. Not me. Glad they are gone if they aren't capable of giving GB a game and hoping TB12 is the next one out.

Yeah the Bills had been the #1 seed most of the year in 1988 but the wheels came off for a stretch late in the season and they lost the top spot. The Bills played in the AFL championship game to go to Super Bowl I........they didn't start calling it the "AFC" championship until SB IV season though. The Bills were the favorite and the Chiefs came to Buffalo and beat the two time defending AFL champion Bills to advance to the first Super Bowl against Green Bay. I know there are or were a few people here on TSW who were at that game. I tend to consider that as their first AFC championship game.

Let Allen have his money if he earns it. Yes they are aided briefly by having a QB on a rookie deal but if they can't win paying a superstar QB the going rate then that will be on McBeane. Having $5M-$10M less per year to spend ain't gonna' make much of a difference if they don't draft and develop well.

In fairness the Bills haven't played a game up to their second-half-of-regular-season level in a playoff game yet. If they had come out flying in one of these games they would be getting more respect. They have looked uncharacteristically tight on offense both games and the defense gave up nearly 500 yards to the Colts. My takeaway really is that the Colts and Ravens are tougher than normal opponents for WC and divisional matchups than they are being credited as........the Bills being a little tight against teams of that level showed. If they were in the NFC then one of them would be playing the Packers in the NFCCG or they'd be playing each other. There is more juice on the AFC side and nobody has played a schedule like the Bills have so I like their chances.

Oh definitely.........Davis wasn't drafted earlier than expected.........it's just that it was possibly the deepest WR draft ever. Most years.......especially a few of those lean ones right after 2014........he's likely a second or third.

The two Roman offense's were similar but the issue with Tyrod was that he didn't have that ceiling. They aren't the same player.........Jackson has more arm talent and he showed excellent pro passer traits in college. The Ravens passing offense is indeed terrible...........but lack of talent at the skill positions aside, Jackson has never been developed as a passer........put Allen in that offense for 3 years and he is probably still at a woeful level as a passer. The Bills took the chance and put Allen in a very complex passing offense and took two full years of lumps developing him as a passer.........he was literally the least accurate starting QB in the NFL..........now he is tremendous........so I wouldn't be so quick to discount Jackson's potential based on the passing game results in probably the most run-oriented NFL offense in 40 years or more(and the most yardage produced rushing in NFL history).

Like @GunnerBill I agree........a top TE would be great. A modestly talented one who needs development is almost as bad as drafting a RB in round 1 though so you really need a guy you are pretty certain will nail it. I haven't done any work on arranging the TE prospects but right now the draftniks don't have any of those on radar except Pitts........who is obvious(but even the obvious move TE1's sometimes turn into journeyman). If you can't get a special one then draft them where they are usually found.........middle rounds and hope you get a Kelce or Kittle with the next one. Knox is a top athlete but he is just so unnatural catching the football that his ceiling seems low.

Mostly correct, IMO but I don't think Jackson is inherently limited in the passing game at all. His ceiling as a passer is definitely top 10, IMO. But the circumstances of his entry into the NFL were not conducive to his development as a passer. Drafted late in round 1......kinda' found money not a huge investment...... by a win-now franchise with a playmaker depleted offense......and given an OC who was known for "high school" level passing concepts(per Trent Dilfer). It was inevitable that they were going to use his magic feet at the expense of his development as a passer. During the draft process I thought Jackson was most likely going to end up as the Bills pick.........Allen, Darnold, Mayfield and Rosen would all go top 5......farther than the Bills would be willing to trade up. Turns out the league kinda' snoozed and let Allen and Jackson slide much too far but I watched all the Lamar Jackson game footage I could get and he really had excellent arm talent and decent natural accuracy.

I feel like it's coming tho. Especially after advancing this far, having weather scares for their pass heavy offense and poor rushing production in the playoffs. After Cody Ford I am still not entirely convinced they fully understand that you wanna' save those picks for premium $ positions. I expect Travis Etienne maybe. Same logic Chiefs used with CEH last draft. Hopefully I am wrong and they don't use a primo pick on a back and rather their scouting department finds the inevitably comparably productive gem late in the draft or UFA............. but I expect the potential short term returns on a RB will be tempting to McBeane the same way they were with Singletary/Moss picks.

I hate to ever see Brady win but since the Bills have a chance to be playing the Packers in the SB I didn't want baby-back ribs Brees going to Lambeau and his floundering Saints serving as an appetizer. Brees could barely throw the ball yesterday he'd have been an embarrassment in the cold of the frozen tundra. The Bucs are much more likely to give Green Bay a game.

Yeah and whether you and I like it or not they probably put some more valuable chips into upgrading the RB position this offseason and have an even more consistent and balanced offense next year than this one. And then maybe if he gets a HC job next year it will be a no-brainer and he will take the job during WC week while the Bills are on a bye.

It's definitely good to get out of the way. First world problem having coordinators interviewing for HC jobs on off-days during playoffs but I can't see how it's possible to be 100% into the game plan that week when you are trying to sell yourself and a staff of prospective hires to another organization. Might take some pressure off of Josh but more importantly it should put some extra focus on Daboll knowing where he is going to be next year.

Honest Urb taking the Jax job threw a wrench into it for the guys who could choose to wait for a job that came with an elite young QB. That left only LA and Houston........and with Watson maybe on the way out in Houston..........yeah, good decision to stay home in Buffalo if the LA job wasn't offered.