BADOLBILZ

Oh if it was just Dareus that they moved on from then fine...............your coaching situation was entirely different being just one player...........but when you extract that much talent to change a culture...........and then watch most of those players go elsewhere and excel and not in any way impede their teams SIGNIFICANTLY greater success...........well that's the issue. I am assuming John didn't go on to greater things with other teams but even if he did that's just one player............not 5 players ending up starters in championship games and 3 of them in Super Bowls while the Bills labored to a 10-15 record since the last one was pared off the Bills roster. Dareus wasn't the most valuable of that group but it turned out that he was the last straw....................his trade undermined what should have been the Bills first double digit win season in almost two decades. I still have no clue why they made the deal in-season.............if you are sure he's going to hurt your process then you can't go into the season with him.............but to make the move in season in a playoff race was a dubious decision..........and the draft pick certainly wasn't worth the exposure to a cast of practice squad players manning that position.

They drafted a 1 tech in Harrison Phillips in the third round in 2017. For a run stuffing DT only that's most definitely a starting grade draft pick. It's a passing league you don't pick backup 1's or 0's early.........those kinda' guys are late picks who are often inactives or practice squadders. So why you keep ignoring Harrison Phillips and saying they haven't addressed the position with a replacement I don't understand..........you can only suit up 47 on game day Royale.........how many "2 down only" DT's do you think are required? You basically need 1 of them plus a versatile DT who can play either...........a bill which a 6' 6" 340# Jordan Phillips might just be able to handle for the 15% of snaps or so. Hence my take that Star could see some healthy scratches if he doesn't come to camp a changed player. But he CERTAINLY isn't going to be cut even if he performs like KB...........not with close to $19M still guaranteed on the books.........I mean if they cut Star with $19M left AFTER already eating Dareus' $24M.........that would be a true feat of stupidity from a GM over a 1 Tech position. Here is my outlook for the season at DT............if Ed Oliver is healthy HE will draw the double teams and Harrison Phillips should have a strong statistical season.

No doubt on Phillips. But on whether they could build on what they had with Dareus? I believe the chief reason they used the salary cap and other excuses to clear the decks of prime age young players was because those tyes of players have enough leverage to not feign buy-in and want the coach to at least meet them half-way if not actually prove to them that they have a good plan and can make a difference from the sideline. McDermott wasn't comfortable convincing anyone because he knew he wasn't a McVay who could instantly turn around a moribund franchise with X's and O's and let the culture follow. It's no coincidence that all of the big names moved or lost.......Gilmore, Woods, Watkins, Darby and Dareus..........could afford to take that stance.........and McBeane even doubled down by lining the pockets of McCoy and Wood to get them to pimp "the process". That summer of 2017 McBeane were really feeling their power...........I think they were too impatient with players like Sammy and Dareus..........I don't think it's too much to ask for a coach to understand that players with options are going to be more cautious about buying into an unproven regime. You might be able to convince me the bleaching out of prime young talent was worth it if the team hasn't been so bad since the Dareus trade. They have a 10-15 record since and their point differential actually indicates that that is a false read and they have been worse than that. Ultimately, not many organizations would give that much freedom to tear down a roster.............but the Bills with desperate ownership were willing. That's happened before under Ralph when he was becoming frail and over-empowered Donahoe and Levy/Jauron and even Buddy/Gailey...........so it's not something we haven't seen...........but in this case it seems McBeane even had full control of the purse strings..........which lead to the biggest dead cap hit season by one in NFL history. And those "too close" haircuts by all of the other regimes repeatedly set the roster too far back for each of their regimes to survive the build. That's ultimately the issue here...........instead of working with what they had like most ownerships force new regimes to do.........the Bills are now playing catch up(again).

As I've said many times regarding Star.....the eyeball test says he was sluggish, didn't impact OL on contact and was too slow to disengage to be able to make plays..............the woeful numbers only confirm the eyeball test. As for the other question.........when Kelvin Benjamin was running with the first team until the week that he was cut was that proof that they liked or were satisfied with what he was doing on the field? I don't think so.........I think we all know that the situation was complicated by the fact that they swung a trade to get a player they were familiar with and were paying him $8M.

Well yes he was brought in to play the 1 tech like Dareus...........which is a position that involves some stacking of blockers but also allows for more freedom to make plays than nose tackle. But let's say Star was just signed to be a LOS bound nose tackle.............well the highest paid one of those is Damon Harrison who signed a 5 year $47M deal with the Giants with $24M guaranteed........... slightly less than Star's ABSURD contract and almost certainly the comp that Star's agent and the Bills used to come up with that number. But Harrison and Lotulelei aren't on the same planet as players............Harrison is good for 75-80 tackles and 10+ backfield plays per year...........Star was only about 1/3 as productive in the previous years in Carolina when he signed that contract.......that's why it was panned by most observers at the time as the worst or one of the worst deals signed. But last year he put up just 17 tackles and 1 TFL. That's woeful and for Damon Harrison+ money at that spot. See Harrison Phillips stats and compare.........35 tackles and 6 backfield plays in 8% less snaps than Star. What's Phillips worth? $20M per? That role/position traditionally does not pay well and yet McBeane paid Lotulelei like the best in the league. Face it......Star was a turd last year..........he hasn't even been good for a while.........basically since after his rookie year when he was a touted first round pick who was supposed to be a dominant player for years to come(sound familiar?). That hasn't happened but it didn't stop McBeane from doubling down on their cap mess at DT1T. What you "don't seem to understand" is how out of whack that contract is. It's horrible.

You aren't alone in thinking Peterman was going to be better...........you just couldn't have been any more wrong...........even the dubiously dubbed "coach" Sal Capaccio thought he was going to much better than Tyrod. I was certain he was going to fail based on a simple eye test.......seeing his chuck and duck act in the preseason that everyone fawned over yet which only resulted in 50% completions...............it was inevitable that those passes thrown up for grabs were going to turn into interceptions against actual starting NFL talent. First rule of Jauron Ball is don't turn the ball over. Utter stupidity by McDermott to forget his first rule. Fortunately he went back to Tyrod and Taylor guided them to that key road win in KC. Best thing about McDermott is that he owns and addresses his mistakes. You should own that awful take instead of defending it.

Here's the reality..........Taylor had one atrocious game against the Saints...........the game before in NJ he was the only Bills player who showed up..........and he deserved to be benched in the middle of a playoff race for Nate Peterman? You still going with that?

How is that a "gotcha"? It was just a year and a half ago and talked about by astonished observers for the rest of the season......... how could you forget that? And one of those 2012 games you are talking about the Bills won 19-16 in Arizona. I don't care about comparing the 2012 Wannstedt defense to the 2017 team...........that has nothing to do with the point.......the 2012 defense was an abomination............the point is that the 2017 Bills defense came apart without Dareus. That's why they desperately overpaid for Star. That's a reality and one of several significant judgement errors by McBeane in 2017, IMO.

135 points allowed in 3 games ring a bell? Grasp that..........that's 45 points per game. Is your memory that short? Worst stretch in Bills history and 4th worst by ANY team since the AFL/NFL merger.

Well start with Harrison Phillips' stats. The rookie had 35 tackles and made 6 plays in the backfield(TFL + QB hits) playing in 38% of Bills snaps. Star had 17 tackles and 1 backfield play(a TFL vs. TN) in 47% of Bills snaps. Better yet.........stay away from stats.........you are making one mistake after another on them in this thread.

That 3 game stretch was statistically the worst stretch of performances in Bills history............they couldn't stop anything. And the reaction by McDermott after the first two of those games? Bench Tyrod. Like that's going to stop teams from moving the ball at will on your run defense.

There isn't anything to it, actually............all of the best teams of the 2000's rose to that level from a state of mediocrity.........in some cases several years of it. The teams that bottomed out in the 2000's? Hasn't worked out well. The last team to be rewarded for that with a SB win were the 1998 Colts..........who got one. The days of needing to bottom out to break the chain of mediocrity ended before the Bills even started their run of mediocre to bad teams.

Go back and watch some of the Cover-1 stuff on Dareus from that time. Tell me if Star can stack and shed like that. Two weeks after Dareus was traded the defense went on the worst stretch of play in team history. They were fortunate to limp to a 4-5 finish because of 3 wins against woeful Dolphins and Colts teams.........and the Colts and second Phins game were much too close considering Brissett and Fales were the opposing QB's. And not only was Dareus good in Buffalo but he went to Jax in 2017 and they instantly went from the bottom of the league in run defense to near the top. It was a very suspect decision to trade him and only exacerbated by replacing him with a ridiculous contract for Star. But if they had traded Dareus in the preseason they surely miss the playoffs.........no question........so I guess that's a plus for McBeane.

Well in fairness, they did win 2 AFL titles........which was the most they could do at that time..........and were a win away from SB I the following year.........and had a couple contenders under Knox. They weren't out of contention for 19 straight years like the current Bills run of futility. After watching you interact with Gunner(calmly debating you) and myself(sarcastically mocking you) and seeing that your responses in both cases were a very similar level of unflattering petulance.............I think you should research the phrase "once a man, twice a child".

First of all let me say I object to your use of the highlighted. It's virtual paraphrasing of my "only you can make you happy" ...........which is ONLY to be used for eternal apologists. Second.......yes you will be watching Scott because you need a place to channel your Bills issues. Funny how unrelenting you are with your complaints about the Pegula owned Sabres organization.....but here........well you got excuses. I guess because of the fact that most Sabres fans are fed up with the losing you can't find enough people to take your frustration on there so you just put it where it actually belongs......on the organization. Try it here. Fun fact: Scott hasn't lost a game for the Bills yet.

Excuses are the death of process. Plenty of Bills fans from your area that would gladly give you free rides to the game since they are going anyway.........you just don't want to ride your bike to their house in the dark. And you could get on a Bills budget. First thing, stop ordering take-out for dinner every night. There is your season ticket. And the $10 a day you save on tipping for takeout(why?)............that's your club seat upgrade right there.........you could be sitting next to @teef and getting free dental advice.......which is worth more than the damn seats! But if you don't have the process in you then keep raking your leaves from one side of the lawn to the other on Sundays and then coming in to complain about the takes of people who actually watched the games. SMH.

400 is a lot but I count preseason games too and I tailgate with people who have surpassed that number and are still walking vigorously without assistance. I think Kenny will surpass 350 just in the 2000's this season. Some years the preseason games have been one or more of the most fun games of the season. And I'm not kidding. Short of making the playoffs there is little more satisfying than seeing young players emerge in the preseason. I'm pretty psyched about seeing Tyree Jackson play 8 quarters this ps. Plus beautiful sunny warm weather, happy fans and scantily clad women......or even entirely unclad women. Definitely be a few of the preseason games in my top 25 of the 2000's at least. It's impressive that you've gotten to 250 living mostly outside of WNY.........that's a lot of games.........but that's my main point. This isn't like MLB or the NHL where it's nearly impossible to attend all games so seeing or even being there for franchise historically significant ones isn't just a stroke of luck. Most dedicated Bills fans see every Bills games the day they happen whether in person or broadcast. So these threads kinda' read like the old Chris Farley talk show sketch were he asks the guest "remember when you did that?..........That was awesome". But anyway I apologize for letting Gugny hijack the thread with his bickering...........I was just pointing out that to out-of-towners who have to plan travel and take vacations to attend games these always seem like 50 page threads waiting to happen. But the reality is that as long as there are actual living and breathing human beings that live close enough to the stadium to roll out of bed by noon and comfortably make it to kickoff it's not going to be a feat of fandom to make it to A LOT of games.

I also have other controversial opinions..........I believe that no matter where you go, there you are..........and water isn't dry........there's a bunch of 'em. We'll just have to agree to disagree.

Here is what you said that I said: "Among others when a few pages back he talks about when you are new like Allen you have to learn to be a bust or words to that effect." You have to learn to be a bust? That's utter nonsense. Mine were not words to "that effect". My take was a joking play on easy answer, low content, self-help quotes............I don't know WHAT was going thru your mind...........you have to learn to be a bust? That's not a thing........that's two things that don't belong in a thought together. If you can't see that you shouldn't be here you...........you should either see a healthcare pro about your thought process or maybe run for political office.

The 1990 AFC Championship is the obvious one but otherwise couldn't possibly narrow it to 5. I know you don't always watch the games but most of us watch them all...........it's a 48 hour time investment annually..............but you got leaves to rake so we understand.

Absolutely. They haven't earned the goodwill on the field to assume they will succeed though. Perhaps more than any other regime in recent memory CLEAR paths not taken have resulted in greater success by organizations that picked up what the Bills passed on or tossed away. That's actually added a lot of fun to the mix..............gifting Patrick Mahomes to a traditional AFC rival is not the kind of thing that happens with every regime..............but neither is being all-in on a QB on draft day like Josh Allen. There is a lot of intrigue with this group really. Allen could guide them to great heights or this regime could prove to be the least competent in team history. Everything is TBD.

Oh has it been easy to think the Patriots were going to miss the playoffs for the past couple decades? Or that the Yankees will have a losing season when they've had 25 straight winning seasons? I understand there are a lot of people out there with varying degrees of depression or other mental illness issues that need to avoid all negative thoughts..........they really shouldn't be here, I'm sure their therapist would tell them that........maybe focus on non-competitive interests like music or poetry or theatre But then there are those of us who realize that this is just competitive entertainment and it's OK to be objective and rational about it. And yes..........past history is a big part of the picture objectively. The Bills have sucked for two decades...........the Pegula's ownership has been very ineffective on-field/on-ice............the burden of proof is on the teams not the fanbase.

WTF are you talking about? Assisted living dude...........it's time.

So let me get this straight.............you don't bother to educate yourself about football............you don't live or work in WNY but you live close enough to attend all games but make little effort to do so.............you openly admit you care a lot more about the Mets than the Bills...........but you are questioning my fandom? GTFOH. You are a poser. ?‍♂️

The reason these "these are the cool games I attended" threads rarely have the legs the OP expects is that there are literally thousands of Bills fans who have been to 300-400 or more Bills games.