OldTimer1960

I am with you. It has become the way to get noticed as a "reporter" and it is awful to listen to. I feel the momentum building and it seems like we could be in for more "reporters" racing to tweet snarky comments about every incomplete pass that Yates throws in practice.

Enthusiasm duely tempered as it was late in preseason game 1 with and against guys who will be looking for jobs soon, but Peterman acquitted himself well in his first outing. He threw some passes over the middle and threw some timing passes. He looked pretty poised for his first game action. Let's see how he does the remainder of the preseason. For now, optimism with lots of grains of salt.

Well, thank goodness that you are here to "not excuse" such poor decisions! You and all of your credentials should hold everyone "accountable" until someone gets this team right!

I did not say that those players lacked that kind of character. The Watkin's trade is simple to explain: they were not willing to commit to the money that it would take to re-sign him after this season. That is why the trade was made. The Darby trade is a little harder for me to explain. I don't think that they had a reason to want to ship Darby out. I guess that they wanted Mathews and the 3rd round pick.

I don't understand your logic saying that they traded for guys on expiring contracts. How does that help anything? Losing two guys that you didn't have before doesn't create cap space magically. If they wanted to create cap space they would have just taken the draft choices and not required Mathews or Gaines be part of the deal.

You are misunderstanding the character that they are talking about. They are talking about dedicated, smart, hard working team oriented players that do have talent - maybe not quite as much talent as some less dedicated players, but not a wide gap. Nobody said anything about nice. I like the type of team that they are trying to establish - it should set them up well if they finally can find a top 1/3 of the league QB.

For sure, they are an injury at S, CB or LB from having a dreadful defense. If they lose a player at both S and CB, the air raid sirens will be sounding every Sunday.

I agree, but 6-10 won't be quite bad enough to be in good draft position. I don't think that Taylor is a good long term option at QB, but he can probably scramble his way to a couple wins that they should not get.

Do you mean like they didn't package picks to move up for Zay Jones and the same for Dion Dawkins?

In order to trade up, some team ahead of them in the draft order would have to be willing to trade down. Cleveland, SF, and the Jets are not going to trade away a shot to get a QB.

Even with the extra picks there is no certainty that they will be able to trade up for a QB. Both SF and the Jets will still likely draft ahead of them and neither of those teams would trade out so Buffalo could take the QB. The Bills will really have to bottom out and make sure that they lose both games to the Jets if they want a good QB prospect next year.

What does that strategy do for anyone? 5-11,6-10 does nothing except leave the Bills on the outside looking in on the "good QB prospect derby". In my view, they are straddling the line - half looking to get a QB in the draft and half looking to be decent in this season. Those goals are contrary to each other. Tyrod is not a QB that can be competitive in the playoffs without a GREAT team around him and this most certainly is not a great team.

I hope that you are right, but I don't see it that way.

sadly, that won't be enough ammo to get a good QB prospect unless the Bills' own pick is top 5.

My view is that the LBs and secondary are going to be very big weaknesses. With Darby gone, you have Seymour or Gaines (both downgrades) starting at corner. One CB injured and I don't know how they could even play nickel. No safety depth and only 2 starting caliber LBs on the team.

The point is that they weren't willing to pay him what the Franchise tag would require.

This deal is only about the draft picks they got. If they like either Mathews or Gaines enough to re-sign them, it will be a bonus.

Whether they admit it or not, this is about ensuring a poor record to be close enough to the top of the draft to even be able to pull off a trade up for a QB. KC's first is going to be in the 20s, so likely not enough to package with say the 10th pick to get into the top 2

I like the trades long term (only the draft picks). Mathews is one year here and gone as a FA and Gaines is of no consequence. This year is going to be very painful to watch - think nearly 2016 Browns bad. Sadly, the thing that could screw everything up for next year would be Tyrod sandlotting his way to 5 or 6 wins thus keeping us out of reach of a good QB prospect next year. Watkins will be a FA next year and they did not expect that they would be willing to pay enough to keep him.

There isn't enough talent on this defense to rebound. They have a nice DL, bottom of the league LBs 1 starting caliber cornerback 2 average safeties and zero depth in the secondary and LBs

I wasn't trying to criticize what they got for Watkins, I was responding to those who think that Gaines was an important part of the deal - that's all.

With today's fire sale, I would not be surprised to see them cut whomever is necessary in order to get a comp pick. It would accomplish getting the comp pick and adding more assurance that this will be a 4 or 5 win team that will be picking high in each round. Next thing they'll be tipping the league off to when to do Dareus' drug tests to get him suspended

I think those are some rose colored glasses you got on. Mathews is ok, but is nowhere near the threat that Watkins was. Heck, if he was that good the Eagles would not have had to add a 3rd round pick to get Ronald Darby. Mathews was the throw-in the real price for Darby was the 3rd rounder. Gaines is no great answer at CB. He is a 5'9" cornerback who has started 10 games the last two years after starting on an awful 2014 Rams team as a rookie. I know INTS don't tell the whole story, but he has only 2 in his career. The trade was Watkins for a second rounder with Gaines an after thought

Likely they will fumble their way to 5 wins somehow and miss out on the good QB prospects

Gaines was their starting CB in 2014 - on an awful team. He missed all of 2015 and was a backup as best I can tell last year only playing in 11 games. Watkins was traded for a 2nd round pick and a throw in who will make this team only because they have no CBs beyond Tre White. Corrected: Gaines started 10 games last year for the Rams, but is still not a quality starter at 5'9".