BADOLBILZ

The Bills are already up tight against the cap in 2021 even before Allen hits the $25M-$30M salary cap figure in 2022 though. Williams, Feliciano and Milano are UFA's this winter..........Diggs is going to want a new deal very soon.........Beasley and Brown are entering walk years.........Edmunds option for 2022 will be over $10M if they don't extend him before that. Beane has his work cut out for him.

Stefon Diggs was the #2 overall WR recruit in the nation in HS. He wasn't under anyone's radar. Injuries, a talented WR class and questions about his personality pushed him way down the board.

Two things that happened: 1) Top QB's started getting paid better than any US athletes short of the very finest in the NBA. 2) The game got a lot less violent for QB's around 2010. That made playing QB a lot more interesting to some really great young athletes(and their parents). Football is still a game of attrition at most positions but QB's now can play longer and at a higher level than just about any position in sports.

So basically you think Beane let's Allen play out his full 5 year rookie deal...............when Mahomes(and Tre White for that matter) got extended after season 3?

Yep.......he's started out some games hot but I think it's very important to get him in a groove early in case he's not. Wasn't happy at all with the game plans against Tennessee and KC where Daboll seemed too interested in running the ball early when he had a QB averaging over 9 ypa and runners getting less than 4 ypa. It's a lot different when you have a QB averaging in the low 6 ypa range and backs getting 5.5 like the 2016 Bills.

1) Exactly. 2) LOL

"It's like a miracle! Keep it in perspective though. How dare people bring up mistakes? But realize that nothing has yet been accomplished. In closing how can you not enjoy this journey? Do it because it could all be an illusion then you would be sorry." Have I driven you home from a game before?

I hope they win the SB this year with a QB on his rookie deal.......as I said I think that this season was their best chance to maximize their roster talent/depth.........and that would be like how it worked out for the Seattle and Philadelphia SB winning teams. Doesn't mean they CAN'T get better.........but as those other teams can attest, after the cap room dries up it gets more difficult to keep the roster stocked. That's where we will be able to see how McBeane stack up against organizations like New England, Pittsburgh, Seattle and New Orleans who managed to remain contenders for long periods of time with serious salary cap constraints. The flip side of that........as I've mentioned.......is that when you win and have a franchise QB you should be able to have chances to get a few good, winning-motivated veterans on favorable contracts that weren't an option in the past. Also......winning has a way of extending careers of important veterans you do have. The Bills of the 90's benefitted from that kind of synergy. In the 2000's the Pats have been huge beneficiaries of this. Players will endure a lot more punishment for a longer time if they feel certain they can win. In Buffalo we have become accustomed to players like Aaron Schobel calling it quits or quickly opting out of lost seasons for surgery etc...

You see humility would be a good approach for the Bills fanbase as we hopefully enter an era of playoff success. That's obviously NOT gonna' happen. Hurt people hurt people. It's part of the reason we have such backlash against me basically saying "I approve of Beane being extended but he needs to do better in some regards". This is not a harsh take in anything less than a battered fan environment. But hurt people ALSO make good TV..........so Bills fans will at least be fun for the nation to watch climb the SB mountain again.

Sure but very rarely on TSW. The amount of hotly contested takes of import that I've been spot on about on this site over the past 22 years even surprises me. I'm the GOAT in that regard here and it's not even close. As I've told @GunnerBill though.......the key to being right is not trying to have some kind of take on everything.......it's having your strong public takes on things that you have warranted confidence in. When you try to have a take on everything your winning % falls precipitously and you run the risk of being actual-NFL-GM-level-right..........which is basically a flip of the coin for the most part.

I'm quick to counter extreme positions. I'm very much in the middle being as objective as possible...........and that really inflames unabashed homers who fluctuate from one extreme to another over the past 20 years. So happens that right now many homers are counting their chickens before the regime has even hatched a single command performance in any of 9 games played against their chief division rival or in the playoffs............so the content I am responding to is extremely out of balance with the reality. The journey is the reward.......being in a hurry to crown them runs contrary to that, IMO. It's been said the McBeane are self critical and driven to improve...........if they are that way why should the fanbase "just be happy" with modest success?

1) Honestly.......what is with the ridiculous straw man arguments?😆 I've literally never said anything about just getting young QB's and starting over when their contract is finished. I get that some of you are frustrated that I am so blunt about the errors the organization has made.........but I assure you I've never suggested that Josh Allen should be a one contract and done QB with the Bills. And Shaw.........who are these teams that you think have this approach? Just because Carson Wentz and Mitchell Trubisky are falling on their faces doesn't mean that was part of any plan. Everyone wants a QB who plays and dominates for 15+ years. 2) McBeane have CHANGED their philosophies on team building numerous times. Went with Dennison......failed.......went with a very different system in Daboll. Thought big WR's were the solution.......failed......and did a 180 to smaller, faster WR's who get open quicker. The list goes on. And what I really like is that the corrections they've made are in tune with what I thought they should have done in the first place. Now I want to see Edmunds used more on the edge........and we actually got a peek at that Sunday. And I've been an advocate of using more active players at the 1 tech.........and they are doing that and that too is yielding results now. I don't really see any major team-building philosophy discrepancy.

Are you sure you don't work for The Boston Herald?😄 Belichick is a PRIME example of overcoming a mountain of bad personnel decisions with great coaching and QB play. Seriously some of you would be suicidal if a big market media covered the Bills.........they aren't nearly as even handed as anything I've said in this thread.

They most certainly weren't just "lucky" to get Josh Allen. They were lucky that they managed to pass on Mahomes and Watson and THEN got a shot at a player with Allen's skill level at pick #7 the following year. As I've said many times and in defense of Allen when the critics were labeling him a failure..........in many if not most of the 30 drafts prior to his selection Allen would have gone #1 overall.

At least 3 of Marrone and Rex's teams should have made the playoffs.........greatly underachieving with the talent on hand is why Rex got fired..........sometimes coaching and player errors undermine the work of the personnel departments.........that was mostly the case in the Houston mess. But you could point to a lot of personnel mistakes that greatly contributed in the 6 losses to Belichick........or the loss to Jacksonville in the playoffs. I'm not sure what cherry picking one poorly coached and played game out of 9 accomplishes.

The hyperbole about "my complaints" is pretty laughable.........I just give an honest assessment.........and I've probably paraphrased the "you have to be making bad decisions constantly to not be competitive in the NFL" quote from Belichick 50 or more times in the past decade on this site. You don't have to have been anywhere near perfect to be a SB contender in the NFL. But you do make a good point in the first highlighted.......other than drafting Allen their biggest accomplishment is getting the organization functional. The Pegula's were utterly clueless about how to operate an NFL team..........they eschewed good advice from NFL counsel...........they gave a guy with one foot out the door like Rex Ryan $25M guaranteed and undermined years of draft and development work on defense in the process............as you said it was "largely dysfunctional". Say what you want about the process..........but at least there was a process for decision making instead of the mercurial stewardship they walked into. As for the last highlighted point.........I don't think like that.........the objective of this violent and competitive game is to win the SB......not just to finish as 1st loser or 11th loser by one and done-ing in the playoffs. But the journey is the reward. Some people are just a bit too emotionally invested in the game to be objective about it. That's not necessarily how everyone else has to be to enjoy it.

“Life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy for those who feel.” ― Horace Walpole What I like most about McBeane is that they don't have the kind of mentality that thinks "hey we are the best this organization has been in decades, what's the problem?".😄

I just tell it like it is. And yes he is the GM of a good team and have zero problem with the contract. People act like it's a lifetime contract it's the same thing a new hire would get. He and McD are basically just re-upped. I don't think anyone could argue that they don't deserve another 4-5 years of pay security. I know the more sensitive people get hurt when I point out that they have been so bad against NE and 0-2 with a blown 16 point lead in the playoffs but it's the truth. Many more bridges to cross as Marv would say. I have a fair amount of confidence in McD and BB.........I have a TON of confidence in Josh Allen............ultimately they will go as far as JA takes them.

1) It's not a 7 point assessment.........it's responses to 7 points the OP made.......and how you determined WR's were the crux of it I have no idea. 2) If you don't care about what it took to get to where they are then why are you on a message board debating it? Just jump on the bandwagon and enjoy if you aren't interested in how the sausage gets made. It's a choice. 3) I didn't say they didn't have to make any tough cap decisions.........they were just in a one-time sweet spot last offseason with over $80M to spend and still none of their draft picks had yet accrued enough time to reach free agency. That's the ideal window to maximize the strength your overall roster.

1) Oh hell they "got lucky" right out of the gate............they made the playoffs in 2017 with the worst point differential of any playoff team in 30 years!...........that is the very definition of a statistical outlier........ie 'lucky". 2) As far as getting to Allen..........it actually was a pretty clear path. It was your army fighting it's way to the the capital city and finding it abandoned and undefended kinda' easy. They had traded away a bunch of assets starting in 2017 to accumulate picks with the thought process that they were going to need a ton of picks to move up for a QB in 2018. As it turned out there was very little competition to get there. Teams were not willing to pay much to move up for the likes of Allen, Rosen or Jackson. Beane didn't even have to use the 2018 first round pick that they acquired in the Mahomes pick swap! What they really did exceptionally well was to take the QB with the highest ceiling. Better to swing and miss on a guy like Mahomes, Watson or Allen than someone with physical limitations to overcome like size or arm strength. That's not to be undersold........it used to be that you took the lower ceiling guy if they seemed more game ready. The 2018 Bills didn't fall into that trap they made the right decision on the most important decision this regime will probably ever make. 3) Beane has had a few big misses($50M for Star.....Ford/Metcalf being some very costly ones)........but he has had A LOT of medium and small face-plants which is why they are up against the cap already and haven't had to pay their QB. Things like cutting Quinton Spain right after you just signed him? There's been a lot of quickly wasted dollars as Beane has tried to throw enough options at the wall to hopefully get some that stick. 4) BB's WR judgment was maligned for a reason........his first two WR corps were among the very worst in the NFL and Bills team history.......seriously check out the WR corps from the Bills 2-14 teams versus Beane's choices. And meanwhile the former Bills WR's McBeane passed on were making noise on the field elsewhere. He totally whiffed on AJ Brown, DK Metcalf and Terry McLaurin in favor of Cody Ford in the 2018 draft and subsequently they now have a WR corps that is fronted by 3 free agents eating up over $30M in cap space and no TE's. That's not genius that's paying the market rate in free agency and trade to correct mistakes. Hopefully Gabe Davis is the start of Beane drafting good WR's. 5) Beane absolutely did not inherit one of the worst OL in league history..........he inherited an excellent group..........they had literally lead the NFL in rushing for the previous two seasons! Wood, Incognito, Glenn........excellent players. Unfortunately they hired an OC with an inflexible plan and then Beane foolishly extended the 31 year old Wood(who was going nowhere) a season ahead of his free agency in an attempt to get him to help pimp the process for McD. That ended up costing them a lot of cap space when Wood retired after the season. And then they strangely nickeled and dimed Incognito for some reason and he quit. Glenn was traded and he then signed some bad OL to replace all of those guys. He CREATED a horrendous OL for 2018. He's done an excellent job since but this is another example of his totally botching his first crack at something. 6) They literally pay more for DL talent than any team in the entire league so excellence is expected.......and they are getting that excellent play of late. I haven't been as critical of the 2020 DL as many. As an advocate for them sticking with more athletic DT's than continuing to throw good money at bad like they did with Star..........it's just another instance where I'm looking mighty right. 7) Bottom line is that they are at a point now where they SHOULD be at their peak as a roster.........cheap QB.......they've spent basically all of their painfully accumulated wad of cap space in free agency..........haven't *had* to make any money choices on any of their own draft picks yet in free agency(they signed Tre and Dawkins early).........and they've managed to assemble a very good roster........but it's not an overwhelming array of talent(and it could have been with less basic mistakes like drafting to patch holes in the 2018 draft etc.). After this season they need to start getting A LOT more efficient with personnel decisions..........and since they have winning and a franchise QB on their side they should be able to bargain shop a lot more efficiently than in the past. Courtesy of luck and actually having the balls to be the guys that took the quarterback they have bought themselves a bunch of time to learn from mistakes. I understand that my blunt assessment seems critical but the reality is that most GM's are hit and miss and it's like a DREAM COME TRUE to have these things fall into place despite that. They've actually crossed many of the barriers to success with little resistance. But where the rubber meets the road is beating Belichick and winning in the playoffs(and a SB). They are 1-8 in their first 9 high leverage opportunities so far........but they have the QB to turn that around.

The giddiness in this thread is hilarious.😄 Where was Beane going again? He's basically the hand-picked assistant to McDermott and they have a building full of GM candidates who only wish they could take over a team with a franchise QB already in place.

Sure, why not? I've never once advocated for getting rid of Beane or McDermott. They've both made some egregious errors.......McDermott passing on Mahomes was as bad as it gets..........Beane's Kelvin Benjamin trade......his terrible 2018 free agent class.......giving away $3.5M for a two week trial on Corey Coleman...........his drafting of Cody Ford with 3 amazing WR1's on the board(which forced his hand to trade a bunch of picks for Diggs in the following draft)........trading potential 2020 All Pro Wyatt Teller for a late pick. You could certainly make the argument that his judgement wrt personnel is as mixed as the Bills previous GM's. But he earned my support when he made the moves and selected Josh Allen..........whether it worked out or not he was the first GM to actually take a QB with the Bills original first round pick or trade up from it since they took Richie Lucas in 1960. More than the GM or HC hires the reason they haven't been winning was trying to shortcut on the QB position. And he is the first GM that the Bills have had where I've actually liked every one of the players the Bills chose in round 1 this far into his regime. Just as important are a couple intangibles: 1) Beane and McDermott adjust to their mistakes.......they aren't stubborn about being right in their evaluations or decisions........they quickly pivoted from Rick Dennison, big possession WR's and a bunch of other mistakes. 2) The MF'ers are LUCKY..........and as someone who also possesses that trait..........I most definitely approve. A combo who can pass on Mahomes and get a shot at a Josh Allen the very next draft season is incredibly lucky. Trade away a pick that becomes Justin Jefferson........but gets a vet who is exceeds many expectations. It's fascinating how many opportunities McBeane have had land in their laps and they have made a bunch of mistakes but they always seem to get a mulligan. Lucky is even better than good.

First in catches.............tied for 75th in yards per catch. Allen was amazing against SF but they need Brown back so they can get Diggs some room to run his routes past the sticks like he did in the first month of the season. That would stop the prevalence of the 7-8 yard grabs with zero RAC that have putting them in too many unnecessary 3rd and 4th down situations. In the meantime learning to turn and get low and dive for the line to go after those shorties like Beasley does would be helpful.

I still support the decision to make the trade.............but Minnesota got rid of a player who was at odds with the fully guaranteed-contract-QB, they saved like $50M in salary and got a player who looks like he's already as good or better. More yards, A TON more yards per catch and more TD's. No guarantee who Beane would have picked had he maintained the selection.........he after all had foolishly passed on the likes of AJ Brown, DK Metcalf and Terry McLaurin in favor of Cody Ford. But had they gotten Jefferson I don't think there is any evidence that they'd be any worse off as a team this season. That dude is a game breaker.