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I feel like Watkins' average is misleading... it doesn't do enough to highlight just how misused he has been. While it may work out that he has had 6.5 targets per game, looking at his season you can see that his high was only 10 targets in a game where had 7 catches. 7 catches was his season high. His next best game was 4 catches. I've seen some people say that our run-heavy offense kept us in games, but actually that should free Watkins in the pass game even more. There's no excuse for Watkins' lack of targets. It makes you wonder why the franchise hemorrhaged so much in order to land him, only to do almost nothing to use him as a weapon in the offense.

I'd like to see some statistics now that the whole five-year option has been around for a while.

I get what you're saying, and I agree that the crusade on Whaley is tiresome, but surely you can't be serious about depth. We often blame our record on injuries and every year we end up playing games with inadequate starters at key positions because no one is "ready" to step up. I would argue that WR depth was TSW's favorite excuse for losses last season. We consistently neglect to groom our depth players into starter positions like better teams. We've had plenty of young safeties the last two or three years, and none of them emerged as anything. The problem with evaluating this team is that the Rex Ryan hiring was so bad that it makes everything else seem inconsequential. I have no idea how to judge this roster or this coaching staff. When Marrone left it seemed like we had a great defensive roster and had a wonderful opportunity to bring in a solid coach and continue on with the plan. Bringing in Rex did not just ruin our team on the field, but on paper as well. If Whaley had a plan it was reversed. Our roster regressed and the team made terribly short-sided decisions.

If? Do we not currently have the worst WR group in the NFL?

And here I thought that I might be too harsh on Russ Brandon.

Just a heads up... I take this direct flight often, and the last two times it was $232 roundtrip. This is not a deal. In fact, if you go on jetblue's website you can get a cheaper fare.

This is probably the fifth or sixth coach now that has been absolutely force-fed down my throat. About three coaches ago I stopped giving anyone the benefit of the doubt until they produce. This doesn't mean I don't like the hire or the coach. I am willing to be optimistic... it's just getting very tiresome seeing the same marketing over and over. They've tried this whole "merge the new with the old" strategy plenty of times now. When Rex couldn't wait to meet with the old players it was met with the exact same praise. Somehow this is different? It's a non-story (I know you know that), but what's sick as that this franchise can't get out of it's own way. There should be exactly zero fluff pieces until they do anything worth praising. It's been nearly 20 years now. That's an absurd amount of time to be pretending last season never happened.

It was a fluff piece pretending that it couldn't possibly be a fluff piece.

This was not a publicity stunt. There were no cameras there to document things. ...written...in an article, with this photo posted beneath it:

Depends on what rules we're playing. Seemed like the league let CB's play in Nate's days.

I haven't seen someone get destroyed this bad in a long time. Well done.

I appreciate JW's contribution, especially to threads like this where speculation is quite high. I think Whaley being muted to the media was long overdue. I have said his public speaking was a serious issue dating back to his first official press conference. I don't think articulating your thoughts like some Ronald Reagan type is a necessary feature of a GM, and if Whaley were some "kid genius" out of the gate no one would care that he can barely finish a coherent sentence without contradicting the one before it. I guess what I'm trying to say is... maybe Whaley could have afforded to completely bomb a press conference had the team made the playoffs one of these years. Being a liability with the microphone and building a questionable roster should put any manager on the hot seat.

I genuinely don't know why anyone watches ESPN given the expansive sports media on the internet and your ability to pick and choose the voice that you prefer. Gone are the days when PRIMETIME was THE SHOW to watch. Highlights aren't aired at one specific time -- in fact they're online seconds after they happen. The story-telling aspect of the games are gone completely. With Chris Berman leaving, there's not even a nostalgic factor going for the network.

Wait till you see his lowlights.

No, and I literally detailed above exactly why that doesn't work... taking a DB in round 1 has been at the root of our roster mismanagement.

Because when you strike gold on a QB then paying them that second contract isn't a question. Newsflash: we didn't strike gold on Tyrod. There was a lot of debate and we have a team friendly contract with him. You will never get a franchise QB if you don't try to get one.

Exactly! He isn't worth what he got, so why would you expect another 1st round DB would be? Winfield Clements McKelvin Whitner Gilmore None of these DBs that we took in the first round were worth the next big contract, so why would we think it will be any different this time. It's a terrible investment, nevermind the fact that you're wasting away resources on a hole you just created.

This is an incredibly shallow approach to the greater problem. Yes, it will be cheaper to pay a rookie...until their contract is up. Then we will release them and draft another. It's like leasing a car versus owning one outright. Teams like the Patriots might be able to afford this luxury, but we need to be buying our cheaper cars outright and working hard at trying to get a franchise QB. Drafting a CB in the first after releasing Gilmore is a fundamental error. If you want to break the cycle, then just release Gilmore. To release him and replace with a coveted top 10 pick is the antithesis of building a roster.

This got buried in another thread, but fits better here. This is my take on this exact subject:

No one ever laughed at these.

But...you're the one that opened this thread? Am I crazy or do these new BBMB transfers not understand the point of a message board? It's like they WANT multiple threads per topic.

I will be pretty disappointed if we draft a CB. This has nothing to do with whether or not it is a current need. Here's how I look at it... We've created a need at CB by our own poor roster management dating back to the early 2000's. Similar to how we've misunderstood the value of the RB position, the Bills have created and filled their own holes in the secondary... In 1999 we drafted Winfield in the first round to fill the hole at DB. In 2001 we drafted Clements in the first round and had a 1-2 tandem in Winfield/Clements. In 2003 we let Winfield go In 2006 we let Clements go ... We use UFA Jabari Greer and 4th RD McGee to plug in these holes eventually, but lose Greer to FA, draft Whitner and begin a new cycle at the position... ... In 2008 we draft McKelvin in the first. In 2012 we draft Gilmore in the first. In 2015 we draft Darby with our first pick (2nd round). In 2016 we get rid of Mckelvin In 2017 we get rid of Gilmore As much as this is a condemnation of the free agent era, it's a frustrating look at how many times we have created and filled holes due to poor roster management. If the argument is that GIlmore is too expensive, well then it's a terrible investment of a first round pick. All the CBs (Winfield, Clements, Gilmore, Whitner and even McKelvin to an extent) were let go to the market because they were too expensive. We continually fall for this trick, and then panic when it's time to pony up. Winfield was probably the only player worth the big contract, and when you look back, the only recurring trend in this ineptitude is that we've missed the playoffs. Yes, other teams have let a lot of quality starters walk because they were too expensive. The Patriots are pretty famous for drafting a player and not resigning him, but I'll argue that for us, these are mostly top 10 picks we're talking about here, not last in the first round. These are positions of value in the draft board that are sure-thing starters...and yet we seem to cyclically release and draft DB's anyways. I've brought this up over the years and I'm often looked at as not understanding how the team is being built. Well, at the 17 year mark all I can do is throw my hands in the air and wonder how wrong have I been? If you're going to let Gilmore go, fine. I don't have a problem with it, really, but you need to STOP the cycle there. You need to use the back half of the draft and bring on depth players to compete for the position. You cannot afford to simply replace with another first round pick because in 4-5 years (less if you count Darby) it will just happen again. To me, it's simple...if you're going to keep getting these high draft picks you NEED to gamble on the game changer, the QB. If you try and fill a position of need, you're going to soon release that player and be right back in the same spot in a few years. If you hit on a QB, the decision is easy. You keep him, you pay him, etc. Every year we go down this same road, every year we scratch our heads at how all these other teams are always in it while we're out. You can't solve ANY problem until you solve the QB problem. TLDR: Don't draft a CB. It's a waste and we'll just let him go in 4-5 years like we've done several times during the drought. Draft a QB. Even if it's a swing and a miss it's a better value.

I have a "mild appreciation" for that. I think being a QB, to the level that Tyrod has played, can keep you in most games. I think being a great passer wins you a handful of the close ones.

We'll certainly find out a year from now. There was a plan last year to stick to the run, regardless of how the defense played, no one disagrees with that. The problem I have is that for the most part the ultra-conservative play calling was thrown out the window when we were down and we still struggled to move the chains. It scares me that when teams knew we were going to pass he was helpless mostly at the end of games.