mjt328

My analysis is referring to Beane as a GM overall. Not just the 2025 trade deadline. He started with a reputation of being aggressive and bold. But over the last many years (with the team on the edge of Super Bowl contention), he's become overly timid with upgrading the roster. In free agency. In the draft. In trades. While teams in our position should absolutely be making "all-in" moves, Beane is always hedging his bets towards the future. Some think it's smart. Many Bills fans believe it's a huge mistake. There were many on this board who wanted to see us attempt a trade-up in the 2024 draft for a WR. Make a blockbuster move and go up for Malik Nabers, or a smaller move for Brian Thomas Jr. But nope. We kept hearing how expensive it was for those oh-so valuable draft picks. It wasn't even something on the table for Beane. First round picks are just too valuable. Of course when our pick rolled around, Beane was so impressed with the top WR on his board that he traded back and just took whoever was left over. Yay for Keon Coleman. The reason we don't have much cap space is because Beane prefers to fill the roster with 3-4 solid/mediocre players (Josh Palmer, Curtis Samuel, Elijah Moore) instead of making an aggressive trade for a really top-level guy.

Many NFL GMs seriously overvalue draft picks, and Brandon Beane unfortunately falls among that group. If you listen to Beane's pressers after the draft, he will readily admit how difficult it is to obtain a high-level impact prospect (even in the 1st Round) when picking in the mid/late 20s. Pretty much everyone we pick 4th Round and later is either depth, special teams, or iffy at even making the roster. But when it comes time to possibly trade one of those draft picks for a proven veteran... he holds onto them like they are gold. Think about the hot names we heard over the last couple days. Jaylen Waddle was the 6th overall pick in 2021. Chris Olave was the 11th overall pick in 2022. We never had the slightest shot to draft either one where we were picking. Both have been fairly productive in the NFL. Yet only a few short years into their careers, Beane (and many other GMs) scoff at the idea of spending a 1st to obtain someone of that caliber. They would rather take their chances with picking someone like Keon Coleman - who less than 20 months after getting drafted wouldn't fetch a Day 2 selection. As a rebuilding team, it was smart for the Jets to do what they did today. It gives them more ammo to go after a potential franchise QB in the upcoming draft, which is the starting point for turning things around. But honestly, even with all those picks... what are the odds they land another CB or DT close to the talent level of Sauce Gardner and Quinnen Williams? The Rams figured this out several seasons ago, and traded their way to a Super Bowl championship. The Eagles are notoriously willing to part with draft picks to stack an already loaded roster, and it's paid off huge for them. Teams that are close need to be buyers, because they can obtain elite/proven players in exchange for picks that probably won't come close to playing at that level. It's absolute madness that more teams haven't figured this out yet.

Correction. It's the smart move for the Jets. Only because they need to blow everything up and start over. It's only a massive win if they use those extra draft picks to land a franchise QB, and then properly build the roster around him.

Brandon Lloyd had 74 catches and 911 yards that year. You are actually proving my point exactly. The Patriots offense was built to distribute the ball to slot receivers, tight ends and running backs. Which is perfectly fine. I'm good with that being our method of attack, if that's where our skills strengths lie. Make Kincaid and Shakir the focal point. But everyone knows that Brady could still make you pay deep, which is why teams were reluctant to cheat heavily towards the line of scrimmage. Even Gronk could catch a deep ball down the seem if the safeties were too focused on the underneath stuff. Not to mention, he was light years ahead of pretty much every QB in NFL history (including Josh Allen) in terms of diagnosing where to distribute the ball pre-snap. Keon Coleman is on-pace for about 60 catches and 600 yards, and that's with Allen force-feeding him the ball at times. His usage is actually going down as the year goes along. It's clear the Bills don't have the horses to challenge defenses on the outside. An overweight gadget WR who hasn't done anything in 3 seasons is not going to move the needle.

If you don't have anyone on the roster who can challenge the defense outside/deep, they will shift everyone closer and take away the short passes and inside stuff. Brady can design his offense however he likes. But if we don't have the ability to make a defense pay for cheating against that style of play, it will become easy to shut-down.

If this happens, I'm going to start questioning Brandon Beane's understanding of Football X's & O's. How many gadget/slot/inside guys can you possibly field at one time? Do we not understand that offensive rosters kinda need guys who can play outside and run down the field? Right now our top receiving weapons are a slot WR (Shakir) and a TE who plays from the slot (Kincaid). Most people feel like our top outside WR (Coleman) would be better from the slot. Then we are also paying good money to another TE (Knox) and another gadget/slot player (Samuel).

Keep pushing his cap hit out, until the day he retires and you are forced to start over. Then you balance out his $150-200 million dead money by trading all the veteran assets left on the team for draft picks.

The way injuries seem to happen with this team, getting the #1 Seed would still be the best thing (by far). Not to mention that we are 9-0 after the bye under Sean McDermott. To accomplish that, the Bills just need to keep winning the games in front of them. No more slip-ups. The upcoming matchup with the Patriots is their opportunity to pull back ahead in the AFC East, and is a must-win. We can't really afford to drop more than another 1-2 games the rest of the season. My feeling is that Baltimore will still roar back and win the AFC North (easily), and the Chiefs will still make the playoffs (possibly also winning their division). An ideal scenario is for them to play each other in the first round, while we watch the Wild Card games from the couch.

To be fair, yesterday was the best the Bills have looked all year long. It was the first time they've played strong for four full quarters, regardless of opponent. Even the blowouts they had against the Jets and Panthers were very unimpressive performances by the passing offense, and those games felt more like the other team throwing up on themselves than us actually being dominant. If another team like the Chiefs or Ravens took until Week 9/Game 8 to finally put things together, we would (justifiably) be calling them overrated and beatable. In fact, the same Bills fans that are saying "all that matters is getting the win"... are the same ones saying the Patriots are frauds because of their easy schedule, and we will easily pass them by year's end. They were also the same ones saying that Kansas City wasn't as good as their record last season. Personally, I don't think there is anything wrong being critical. Yes, of course all teams are flawed. But until the Bills hoist that trophy, they haven't earned trust and confidence from the fanbase. Most of us expect bad things to happen eventually, because that's what happens every season.

If Cook isn’t breaking off big runs, the offense completely stalls. This team is going to get crushed today.

Go back to 2018-2019, and I was very much rooting for the Chiefs to win. I wanted to see Andy Reid finally get one. I thought Patrick Mahomes was fun to watch. The team was new and exciting. And more than anything else... I was ready for the two decade long Patriots dynasty to finally end. Even from 2020-2022, I still had an element of respect for the Chiefs. Even with our postseason losses to them. They were a very good team that we were simply struggling to get past in the playoffs. It was frustrating, but there wasn't anything in particular I could hate or dislike about that franchise (outside of domestic abuser Tyreek Hill). To me, everything started falling apart with the Taylor Swift/Travis Kelce fiasco. The NFL couldn't go 10 minutes without showing her reaction to the game, and every element of their coverage reeked of blatant favoritism. It was around the same time that officiating also started getting ridiculously biased in their favor. Every single 3rd-down stop from the opponent was followed by a suspiciously late yellow flag. There was a noticeable drop in how well the team was actually playing every week... but somehow (often with help from the refs), they continued to find ways to win. At this point, Chiefs games are pretty much unwatchable for me. I won't even tune in hoping they lose. I didn't watch the Super Bowl, and didn't even know who won the game for almost a week after. I haven't watched any of their primetime games this year, and probably won't watch another outside of the Bills matchup. I'm not really excited about Sunday's game, and will be very quick to change the channel if things start going south. Seeing that team have any kind of success is literally that nauseating for me. One more point. I think it's just dreadfully boring to watch the same teams win ALL THE TIME. We just suffered through the Patriots for nearly 20 years, and now the Chiefs have made the AFC Championship a whopping 7 years in a row. There are currently 12 franchises (and their fanbases) who have NEVER won a Super Bowl. That's more than 37% of the league.

I'm OK with us sticking with a heavy rushing attack (if it's working), and taking underneath throws (if that's what the defense is giving us). The problem is that we need to take advantage when teams start creeping towards the line of scrimmage, or playing single-high coverage. And in those must-have situations (3rd and long), we need guys that can get open quickly without forcing the QB to scramble around and buy extra time. In other words, I don't have a problem with the coaching staff's general philosophy. I have a problem with our capability to execute when opponents shut-down our primary method of attack. So yes. We do have a WR problem.

If a quarterback is constantly getting pressured and hit... eventually they will start rushing throws and bailing from the pocket early. Even when the O-Line finally manages to give some decent time, that lack of trust in the blocking has gotten into the QB's head. In the same way, if receivers are constantly having trouble getting open... eventually a quarterback will start moving through progressions too quickly and hesitating to pull the trigger. That's when he starts missing guys even when they are open. I truly believe this is the root of what's wrong with Josh Allen right now. He's admitted that he's not trusting what he's seeing on the field. So what does that exactly mean? From the level of play we've consistently witnessed in the past, I have a hard time believing Defensive Coordinators suddenly figured out new ways to confuse him in Year 9. The lack of trust comes from the supporting cast - in particular the outside WRs.

You talk about that season like it turned out positive. The Bills came back and won the division. But their mid-season lull cost them a chance at the bye. And then they got bounced in the Divisional Round. People aren’t upset about the AFC East possibly slipping away. They are upset because this team still doesn’t look ready for the next step, and still looks behind the Chiefs. Which means another wasted year in Josh Allen’s rapidly closing window.

The Keon Coleman pick sums up Brandon Beane perfectly. The Bills lose their star WR and need desperately to replace Stefon Diggs in the upcoming draft. With so many potentially good WRs in that class, he absolutely couldn't afford to screw it up. The correct move would have been to aggressively identify a guy with premium #1 WR potential, and then move up in the draft to ensure getting that guy. If there wasn't a guy he liked in the draft, he could use that 1st Rounder and other picks as ammo to obtain a veteran option. Instead, he sits back passively in the late 20's, refusing to part with any of his precious draft picks to move up. He even trades back with another receiver-needy team, proving that he's got no true conviction on any of the WRs on his board. If Beane really believed in Coleman, why would he be willing to trade back and risk losing him? If he values his picks so much, why would he be willing to part with a premium draft selection on a WR he doesn't really believe in? This is the conundrum that exists when you have a General Manager who drafts for position and is trying to fill-out a roster... as opposed to one who has a special eye for talent.

I understand Josh Allen's mindset, because it's very close to my own. At this point, who cares about the MVP award, AFC East titles and Wild Card Round victories? He's experienced this team accomplish all of that, and then not be good enough when it actually matters. Over time, continually falling short wears on you. I don't really get excited for regular season success. And I get way more frustrated when the team plays like trash than I did 2-4 years ago. I literally have no patience with this team anymore, because I've seen the same song and dance. We keep hearing about the process and getting better... only to see a rinse/repeat every single season. The optimistic fans keep pointing out how we have stretches like this midseason and then turn it up down the stretch. But WHEN will this team stop squandering their chance at the #1 seed/bye with ridiculous garbage losses to inferior opponents? In truth, the Bills aren't getting better, because every season we restart and go through the same thing. Every year, Allen is going out there and sacrificing his body - carrying a mediocre offense on his shoulders. He finally gets the running game he always needed, and it's literally the same time our top WR exits town and doesn't get replaced. At some point, the guy is just going to get mentally worn out.

To me, the Patriots are irrelevant. If the Bills are an elite Super Bowl contending team, there is no way the AFC East should even be in play this year. We are never going to draw a schedule this easy again, combined with a season where 2/3 elite QBs are injured and their teams may completely miss the playoffs. The fact that we are already behind in the standings, when we haven't even hit the most difficult part of the season, is absolutely pathetic. The goal is to be the #1 team in the entire league, and I'm sick of the excuses why we keep getting passed by other franchises. We keep acting like the Bills have been inches away from hoisting the Lombardi, when in reality they haven't even made it out of the AFC Conference during the Allen/McDermott/Beane era. Only twice have they even gotten to the championship game. They have yet to get homefield advantage and top seed.

WRs are not getting open consistently and protection has been very iffy at times. The coaching staff has also made him overly cautious about throwing interceptions. Josh used to be a player who pressed downfield throws when he got frustrated. Now he’s become basically the opposite kind of QB. All the other offensive issues have made him hesitant and jumpy in the pocket. He bails out and holds it even when plays are there. His ability to escape pressure has decreased this year too. Nobody wants to admit it, but this may be age related. Hope not. Only time will tell for sure. The obvious answer is that we need to get him reliable help at WR, but I’m skeptical anything will happen.

Everybody eats is a good general team-first philosophy for the coaching staff and the players. It’s not a good philosophy for the GM. I don’t like forcing passes to pouty diva WRs who complain about not getting the ball enough, and throw the QB under the bus when things aren’t going their way. Good strategy is just throwing the ball to whoever is open. The problem is when you get into key passing situations, and nobody CAN get open downfield.

Joe Brady doesn’t exactly have a great record with top receivers either… The last half of 2023 with Stefon Diggs, 2024 with Amari Cooper and whatever we have this year.

The identity thing is so overrated. It's just something sports media personalities like to say when they are too lazy to figure out why a team is struggling. Oh they just don't have an identity. They need to find their identity. I've never played sports or been in a locker room where the players sat around trying to figure out their identity. The Bills are losing because they have too many players that are either struggling, or aren't good in the first place. That results in WRs not getting open, O-Line missing blocks, D-Line not getting a pass rush or getting blown off the ball in the run game, missed tackles from all levels, DBs blowing coverage and failing to make pass breakups, etc., etc. The coaching staff is not doing them any favors with their gameplans or playcalling either.

Joe Marino is extremely intelligent on the sport and really does his homework when it comes to watching film. He's also got a pretty level head when it comes to overreacting to what is happening each week. It's pretty disturbing after getting the full bye week to digest everything, he needed a NINE point list of areas we need to fix just to get back on track. We aren't talking about a slight adjustment or quick fix. We just need to completely shift our strategy on offense and defense, bench a handful of starters and make some trades. Yikes. Usually the All-22 film guys start digging in after a loss, and can find a few areas the Bills need to tweak. I've noticed those guys are uncharacteristically down, depressed and frustrated this time around. I think everyone is starting to realize we are screwed.

Not much impact, unfortunately. Michael Hoecht got a lot of hype in the preseason from the analytics crowd, but I didn't specifically notice him doing anything special while rushing the passer. He had 13.5 sacks in 4 seasons/68 games/31 starts for the Rams. Larry Ogunjobi was pretty much invisible, and some were speculating he would be a surprise cut (before DeWayne Carter's achilles injury).

Sometimes it takes time to properly judge a General Manager. The early returns were very good, and it was easy to ignore poor roster management when the team is winning. But as the sample size has gotten bigger, the worse Brandon Beane's decisions are turning out. As everyone probably recalls, the timing on Beane's hiring was very abnormal. He wasn't brought into the General Manager position until after the 2017 free agency and the draft. And for some strange reason, our previous GM (Doug Whaley) waited until his closing months to hit an absolutely homerun in player additions. The Bills literally added Micah Hyde, Jordan Poyer, Tre White, Dion Dawkins and Matt Milano just before Beane was hired. So five of the main cornerstone pieces that we've had over the years were NOT added by Beane, although he basically got credit for their performance. Of course, Beane's first real moves were trading away several of our top players (Sammy Watkins, Ronald Darby, Marcel Dareus, Cordy Glenn) for draft ammo... and then nailing his first pick with Josh Allen. I like to point out that Allen was the third QB drafted. If we knew he was going to be the guy we have now, we sell the farm to move up and take him. So while Beane does get ultimate credit for getting it right, there is an element of luck here. Beane's next most impactful move was trading a 1st Round Pick for Stefon Diggs. It's hard to argue anytime you add a player with the production he gave us for 4 years. But it's also hard not to consider that Minnesota used the same pick on Justin Jefferson (a far superior player), and that Diggs baggage ended up killing us in the end. When you step back and look at our drafting from 2018-now, the results have been really ugly. So many wasted early picks. So many positions he can't get right. The NFL draft is a team's lifeblood. Our original cornerstones are aging out, regressing or leaving for other reasons... and we have nobody there to step into the void. Cornerback is a mess. Safety is a mess. Wide Receiver is a mess. Linebacker is an underrated need. We still haven't been able to add a young and high-impact pass rusher. Everyone (including myself) vastly overrated Beane and the 2025 Buffalo Bills from the start. Only about half the fanbase realizes it right now. The rest are holding out hope that we turn this around, and will soon be coming to the same conclusion. Truthfully, the failings on this roster SHOULD have been expected, considering how poorly the last several drafts and free agent classes have gone. You can't just lose good NFL players and replace them with significant downgrades, and then expect to keep playing at the same level. Hyde and Poyer were not properly replaced. Taylor Rapp needs to be benched, and Cole Bishop has been a below-average starter so far. Christian Benford is not prime White. And our current version of White is not an adequate starter. Milano will never be able to stay healthy. Terrell Bernard was a one-year wonder and is still too small to play MLB. Keon Coleman is a decent replacement for Gabe Davis. They have never replaced Diggs.

We've been a top team for the last 5 years. I think the general thought around NFL betting circles is that we are going to flip a switch and turn things around very shortly. As someone who follows this team faithfully, I think we are one week away from a really sad reality from setting in.