BADOLBILZ

I think he's one to watch for a potential second half breakthrough. He was totally invisible early in the year and I think he has shown that he doesn't have much interest in being their 340# double-team drawing 1T that they have lacked since trading Dareus.......but Butler does have the potential to make plays from the 3T.

Joe Gibbs was an incredible coach. He won SB's with 3 different QB's. IMO he was the best head coach of that 1980-2000 era. They were clearly the better team than the Bills.......but not the more talented one. The Bills starting lineup featured 5 Hall of Famers........the skins had 2. And many other matchups all over the field where you would take the Bills players career over that of their counterpart on the Skins. They had a talented OL but for chrissake so did the Bills. Gibbs just coaxed the best out of that roster.........he got great football out of guys like Mark Rypien and Kurt Gouveia.........who on that day they played better than any of the Bills HOF'ers.........but they weren't the more talented players. I recommend revisiting those rosters.

I think the Bills had the more talented team in the first 3 Super Bowls. The Washington team in particular was a lot of journeyman and players past their prime. The Cowboys team in XXVII was young and should have been vulnerable to a seasoned and primed Bills team that had yet to be picked on in free agency. The Bills by far had the lesser coaching staffs in all 4 SB's though. The other staffs had to orchestrate the season so that their team peaked for the playoffs and they had teams of comparable skill to go against in the NFC playoffs.........so those staffs had battle hardened teams going into the SB. Levy just had to roll the ball out there against the feeble AFC.........and even then they had some too-tense moments in the playoffs.

You are correct. They were free to franchise Gilmore but chose not to. He would have brought a nice return in trade if nothing else. They then drafted a CB in round 1.........which was right out of the Bills post-John-Butler roster churn textbook. Efficiency with personnel chips has not been a strong suit of the McDermott and McBeane era(deference to Beane not *technically* being GM for first 4 months of 2017). Luck has most definitely been on their side though............the Bills literally had the chance to draft Mahomes, Watson, Allen and Lamar Jackson in the first two seasons with McBeane.........opportunity unprecedented in Bills history. If they mess this up they have nobody to blame.

The sample size of what you are talking about is too small to determine definitively yet that QB's are going to be easily replaceable. It's gotten easier to play QB but it's not the first time we've seen crazy spikes in league QB performance. The year after Goodell basically legislated vicious hitting out of the pocket and the secondary........I think it was 2010.........7 QB's immediately threw for passing yardage amounts that were top 25 seasons all-time. It looked like this would really help all those frightened QB's that couldn't play up to their arm talent.......and that everyone would be able to have a good QB soon...........but as defenses adapted the changes really only served to extend the careers of the QB's on teams in the "have" category. The disparity got worse. So I think it needs to play out for a while yet before we can say that QB's are overpaid relative to their impact.

Bills fans are less demanding than most fanbases and the local media is easier on the Bills than they would be in larger markets. We get to 4-0 here and we have fans who are so in shock by the success...... after decades of making excuses for the teams failure........that they have no idea how to handle it. Yeah, real tough crowd. We have a very vocal minority of fans here though who complain incessantly about Bills fans being too negative.......it's very heavy on former WNY'ers. It's pretty weird but I think there is flight guilt and they think that being aggressively defensive of the Bills and Sabres business decisions positions them inside the community more than they would be if they were just that guy who left for perceived greener pastures and still watches the team from afar. It's a minority but they are vocal and that angst is misdirected at a fanbase that really has been very forgiving and supportive in the absence of much success from the local pro sports businesses.

I put a lot more stock into turning around moribund franchises......which is why Kox is #1 and Saban #2. Levy fell in just as the Bills were getting to the point where they were too talented to deny success..........and while he did pull it together and manage the personalities.........that was one of his few strengths. Knox turned programs around the way McDermott is trying to do here..........including hiring the underrated people who ultimately helped build the foundation for Polian, who gets just a little too much credit for the foundation of the roster that made it to 4 SB's. The scope of what Knox brought to an organization was just so much broader than what Levy did at his only successful NFL stop. And let's be honest here........Knox never had a QB like Jim Kelly and his Rams teams were impeded by Roger Staubach and Fran Tarkenton......HOF'ers. But like I said it's not a GREAT list. Bills have never had a GREAT HC. And fwiw..........Marrone may have got to 9-7 because the Pats were resting........but he most certainly turned around a very sickly franchise and he hired two very successful DC's in two years. Mularkey inherited a team that was talented and the coaching job he did in his second season was tragically bad. Marrone never had that problem in Buffalo and he took a team to a conference championship game elsewhere. I would take that over anything Mularkey and Jauron could spin cobble together.

Rex Ryan's defense was sold as not needing studs except for at CB. But as you mentioned with McD's defense.........you still needed certain types of guys. The Bills didn't have a Jim Leonhard to run Ryan's D. The current Bills don't have a Luke Kuechly. People might hate to hear it.......but now that the Bills are near contender status the weaker side of the ball is the one McD specializes in...........not unlike what happened with Rex. Obviously Rex was a total turd but the point being that flexible coaches have a better chance to succeed in the long term. When McD came in he turned a top 10 scoring offense inside out for a scheme specific coach with a very different approach in Rick Dennison. By contrast, whenWade took over he hired Joe Pendry..........who was unspectacular at prior stops(as was Dennison) but a much more versatile football coach who then changed the offense to fit the players he had. The nice thing about McD is that I wouldn't put it past him to learn that maybe he could use a change in defensive philosophy and go to school on it. At least he has shown a willingness to adapt. Rex did not. And Wade was very stubborn about his shortcomings too........they were just more related to his preparation of the team and his sideline work.

1.Knox 2.Saban 3.Levy 4.Phillips 5.McDermott 6.Marrone Right now he is closing in on Phillips, but not there yet, IMO. Phillips really lacked the attention to detail to be a stud HC.......but he was also a "take what I have and make it work.....and build my schemes around the talent" coach......which is extremely valuable. McDermott totally botched his first OC hire and he doesn't adapt his defensive scheme to his players.......he has to have HIS players. That has lead to them creating unbelievable dead money to clear the decks and then pretty much spending it all again and still not having nailed it. He is 0-6 versus his top rival and his record versus winning teams is atrocious.......so obviously he is this close to the top because this list kinda' sucks. The Bills have never won a SB of course but they haven't even employed a HC who would go on to win a SB elsewhere as a HC. That said McDermott is so far more organized than Phillips it's not funny. With the pandemic limiting workouts the Bills are having more injury issues this year but prior to that he had really turned the strength and conditioning department into a huge advantage. Wade Phillips was totally slack on this and his teams were constantly nagged by soft tissue injuries.

And people don't understand that Edmunds job in this defense is to tie up and physically molest would-be blockers.......forcing the action to the last line of defense............the second level of strong safeties. That puts a lot of pressure on would be HR hitting ball carriers. The turf monster or Poyer. Business decisions. Circle beats the square. It's a chess game out there.

Yeah Brady is easily on one of the top 5 rosters in the NFL. He is set up to succeed.

Will Fuller please. He is averaging 15.8 yards per reception......not an anomaly for a guy with a career 14.6 average. That makes him an ideal John Brown replacement(he'd benefit from 4-6 weeks on the shelf). And Fuller is a guy who would under different circumstances probably fetch a late 3rd rounder.........but his expiring contract, an injury history that makes him unlikely to be re-signed in Houston and $5M still due this season should reduce him to something like a 5th round value. To me, as far as the bigger and more commonly discussed names he is probably the biggest potential bang for the buck for the Bills.......who really need to get back to putting up 30 points per game more than anything else, IMO.

Vegas agrees. If you have a good QB.........get him good receiving targets........when a RB averages 13 yards per carry I suspect their presence or absence will start moving the line. I know this thinking drives people crazy.........and it's mainly because it is so entertaining and empowering to see a back break 3 tackles and get 8 yards for a first down........but sweating over RB's is ultimately pennywise and pound-foolish.

I think it's November 3rd.

I think they would align right cost-wise as well.........I can't believe that anyone would trade a #1 for his expiring contract........but Seattle has that late #2 that makes sense. Then since they dealt 2 firsts and a third for Jamal Adams already..........they could basically take the draft off and focus on undrafted free agency.

But what if you really need to hear incoherent, circular ramblings(Tasker) or just love to hear Bulldog get repeatedly brainlocked on the word "I" and it's various contractions. ("ayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayayay doh-no wadda mayka dis team"). I will say that by far best thing on WGR is in fact any show with Eric Wood on. He's great. He is so sorely missed on the game broadcasts.

Darnold also lead the Jets to a come from behind victory over Allen in their head to head matchup that year. It was capped by an absolutely great play where he left Kyle Williams flopping like a fish as he scrambled around and threw a dime for a TD. Josh came out with a chance to take the lead back...........and instead threw a bad interception to seal the defeat. At that point late in their rookie years the Bills had the better team but Darnold had upset them in Orchard Park and was, as previously noted.......clearly the more efficient passer. I think it's very reasonable to wonder if the chaotic Jets organization hasn't sabotaged a QB who could have been very good right now if he were in a better place.

Matt Milano made 4 starts after being named starter in 2017..........then he missed his first with injury. That has proven to be in line with what you could expect from him thru the just 45 games that he has been at the top of the depth chart for his position. CJ Moseley started 77 of his first 80 career chances .........96%. What's more......in just Moseley's first 3 seasons alone he played 3100 defensive snaps.............Matt Milano in year 4 is just at 2250. That's an enormous disparity. As I said, it's not just the missed starts with Matt Milano.......he also misses A LOT of snaps in between. There is some denial about Milano's injury history and I do think some of it is because of just the "basic" box score scouting of his injuries. As in "He was active this many games out of this many" like that's the entire story. That allows for the miss of the injury that cost him the playoff game. It allows one to lump a 6 month broken leg injury into his myriad of muscle injuries. It allows one to not take into account the relatively high % of defensive snaps missed etc.. I am not saying Matt Milano is Mr. Glass but he most definitely has been injury prone and I am not sure why people try to downplay it so much.

You are selling his injury history short. He was named starter over Phillip Humber in December of 2017.........and promptly popped a hammy in Miami and his season was toast.........then missing the Jax playoff game. So he has finished 2 of his first 3 seasons on the shelf. And it's not just the 8 entirely missed games versus just 37 career starts..........it's also the portions of games missed and games he sometimes had to play at limited capacity. Maybe he learns how to stay healthier.........it happens.........see Eric Wood..........but if they extend him I think they need to assume at this point of his career that he will miss at minimum 1/4 of the snaps that you would want him to play because he has missed 18% of his starts plus the time in games where he was injured etc.. That kind of risk requires more than a 25% market adjustment because the odds are that the undersize player is going to get worn down even more with time.

The Dodgers got collective tight butthole on that last play. They even caught a huge break when Arozarena's helmet fell off and tripped him up..........hilarious.😆

Yes but not much. Late pick. Which Brown probably wouldn't do. His productivity is way down on a per snap basis........not just because he's not playing as many snaps per game. He doesn't like 50% of the snaps in Cinci.........that won't change here. The hope would be a change of scenery boosts him back up to last year's level but considering the depth of his statistical drop-off that's not worth a lot in trade.......and his remaining pay checks due would pretty much eat up what's left for cap space so subsequent moves would start to require altering other contracts. Said it before.......I'd try to elevate the offense back up........trying to fix the defense is a multi-body project. The offense just needs to replace John Brown's production, IMO. If the objective is to get that elusive division championship that might be the best bang for the buck. Should be options out there.

Doubtful........Beane quietly and regrettably gave him $7M more in guaranteed 2020 and 2021 salary this winter. That's why he was so quick to take the opt out. That's all the money he was ever going to see from the Bills so why deal with the covid season at all?.........asking for a paycut basically told him he was one and done. All he has to do is show up for camp next summer......flop around and look old....get cut and pocket that $7M.

De-activating them entirely gave Andy Reid hours to build the resolve to fight his nature and be patient with the run. Phillips has received mixed reviews this year but he has been their only hope at 1T as far as defending the run.

As I have said before.........for those of you who miss super-Star watching RB's run past him while he absorbs the single team block.........getting him back next year is going to be like getting an extra first round pick!

I never said they were in dire need of draft picks. They just don't have a good enough or young enough roster to part with much. The Ravens do. They do more with less and make moves that work.......which gives them flexibility to do things like trade draft picks to enhance their roster. One can always defend Beane by pointing out that some other teams make bad decisions............I don't contest that.........but the point isn't what the bottom of the league or even what the more efficient teams have or haven't done.........it's that Beane is making too many of his own mistakes. He's gotta' do better or the Bills will have to be an overachieving roster to remain a fringe contender.