mjt328

These kinds of signings are really how you win in Free Agency. The big splash ones are usually the mistakes. Leonard Floyd, Connor McGovern and Taylor Rapp were all very good signings, who helped the team quite a bit. DaQuan Jones, Jordan Poyer and Micah Hyde were also cheap deals when we first got them.

Most of the Bills "elite" talent has fallen off in the past 1-2 seasons. - Tre White was elite until the ACL and Achilles injuries - Micah Hyde was elite until the neck injury last year - Von Miller was elite until the ACL tear - Jordan Poyer was elite, but has been on gradual decline for the last two seasons - Matt Milano was elite, but missed all of last year with a leg injury - Stefon Diggs was elite until about mid-way through last season It's certainly fair to question if the Bills have enough elite talent right now (March 2024) to compete with the top teams in the league. But it's not accurate to say Brandon Beane has failed to bring in elite talent over the last few years, or that Josh Allen is somehow being asked to do everything himself. This has easily been one of the best rosters in the NFL for 3-4 seasons now. I agree that we currently have a TON of B or B+ level players. What needs to happen is for a few of these young guys to step to the next level and become elite. Ed Oliver seems close. I could see Rasul Douglas getting there under this coaching staff. Greg Rousseau has the potential. Terrel Bernard flashed that kind of ability. So has James Cook. Dalton Kincaid and O'Cyrus Torrence have the talent to get there.

San Francisco couldn't get anything out of him. That was during a Super Bowl run, and with the O-Line focusing their blocking on other players like Nick Bosa. At this point, I just don't think it's going to click for Young.

Anyone can just rattle off a bunch of names. They show zero knowledge of this team or how they have impacted the Bills success. Most of the "losses" you just threw up here contributed little or nothing last year. Siran Neal and Deonte Harty were worthless outside of a couple special teams plays. Trent Sherfield had one nice catch against the Dolphins. Ryan Bates almost never got on the field. Matt Araiza, really? Even Tre White has barely played in the last 2.5 years. Micah Hyde and Jordan Poyer were the best safety duo in the NFL... about 2 years ago. Hyde missed almost the entire 2022 season and was a fraction of himself last year. Poyer was banged up all of 2022 and clearly lost a step this last season too. He also spent a good chunk of time playing coverage linebacker (for Matt Milano), meaning Taylor Rapp has already proven a solid fill-in at the actual safety spot. Truth is, we haven't gotten an All-Pro duo since 2021 and have been better than good in the secondary. Considering half the starting safeties in the NFL are set to be available in FA, the belief this is a strong draft at that position, and our front office/coaching staff's past in developing that position... we should be MORE than confident the Bills will find good replacements. I can understand the concern about Center after losing Mitch Morse. But the Bills did re-sign David Edwards and still have a good starting 5 players on the O-Line. Connor McGovern does have a bunch of experience at Center too. And above all... it's absolutely ridiculous to judge ANY roster before Free Agency or the draft has even begun. The Bills still have around 40 slots to fill. Consider what our team looked like LAST YEAR at exactly this time: - Needed two starting guards: (Later added McGovern, Edwards and O'Cyrus Torrence) - Needed a starting right tackle: (Spencer Brown developed) - Needed another pass rusher: (Signed Leonard Floyd) - Needed a starting middle linebacker: (Terrell Bernard developed) - Needed a starting strong safety: (Jordan Poyer re-signed) Not to mention the depth we added at Running Back (Damien Harris, Latavius Murray), Tight End (Dalton Kincaid), Defensive Tackle (Poona Ford), Safety (Rapp).

I'll be honest. This one was a surprise after the Ryan Bates trade.

These types of moves are always the toughest. Knowing Micah Hyde won't be back next season was sad. But he's had some pretty serious injuries the last couple years. It's very possible he will end up retiring anyway. But Jordan Poyer was always a great team player, and likely still has some juice left in the tank. Maybe not an All-Pro level anymore, but I still think he's a starting safety in the NFL. The hardest one (Tre White) is probably still coming. With Rasul Douglas being restructured, it's almost a given at this point.

Football is a team sport. Outside of the handful of times an elite Quarterback hit the market (Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, Tom Brady), it's going to be really tough to find any Free Agent who can be given credit for single-handedly putting his team over the top. But you can look at almost any Super Bowl winning team and come up with a legit argument how their Free Agent signings contributed. The Chiefs are almost entirely homegrown through the draft. But even they used free agency to upgrade their O-Line (Joe Thuney, Donovan Smith) and safety (Justin Reid). Both were areas that held them back in previous years.

You forgot to mention the ridiculous expectations by the fanbase. They never forget about the missed picks (Boogie Basham, Zack Moss) or the prospects they should have taken (Creed Humphrey). But somehow nobody EVER remembers the college guys they were pounding the table for... who ultimately became absolute busts. For example, I came across the name Ifeatu Melifonwu the other day. It brought back all the memories of people freaking out when we passed him up. I'm old enough to remember when a large number of Bills fans were crying how Beane was always too conservative in Free Agency, and needed to make a splash to get past Kansas City. He ended up making the move for Von Miller. It looked like a great decision for 10 weeks. Then Miller tears his ACL, and the narrative totally flips to how stupid it was to sign him.

I've seen several media folks break it down: Josh Allen's restructure is already written into his contract and an absolute guarantee at this point. That will clear over $23 million alone. Extending Dion Dawkins and Taron Johnson (both are free agents in 2024) also seem like no-brainer moves. Those would clear another $10 million plus. Make a decision about cornerback between Tre White and Rasul Douglas. Keep one. Cut one. And boom, we are back to a positive number. That's without putting a significant burden into future years, or making a significant cut from the roster. Depending on how active we choose to be in free agency, the Bills could clear an additional $30-40 million with additional restructures, cuts, extensions, etc.

The Chiefs got an early 5th Round Pick for a backup O-Lineman? Total genius move. Wait... it was the Bills who made this trade? What an awful decision getting rid of depth for a worthless Day 3 pick.

I guess we can disagree, but I never considered Charvarious Ward more than an average cornerback. To me, he would be the equivalent of us letting Gabe Davis walk this offseason. Not really a key piece or type of player they would sorely miss. Someone else also mentioned Frank Clark, who was already over the hill when they let him leave. He didn't even sign with anyone until late October, and even then signed for just over the vet minimum. Which homegrown players do you believe the Bills SHOULD have let walk instead of paying them in free agency? Tre White? Matt Milano? Dion Dawkins? Taron Johnson? Ed Oliver? All of these players were great re-signings by the Bills. And looking back, all could even be considered bargains compared to their market value had they actually hit the market. They let Tremaine Edmunds walk and it turned out to be 100% the right decision. Again. The Bills have literally ONE major free agent contract we can realistically complain about. Von Miller. And based on 6-7 years of trends, it's pretty obvious that signing was very uncharacteristic by Brandon Beane. This is not something he or the Bills regularly do. He tried making a big splash to get over the hump, and then went right back to a low-key/conservative signings in 2023. That's why I think these complaints are ridiculous. The way Beane manages his salary cap and the way Brett Veach runs his are actually VERY similar. Both try building through the draft first. Both are usually low-key in free agency, with the occasional exception (a great example for the Chiefs is Joe Thuney). Both do their best to re-sign their best players, but won't break the bank to do it. Both are forced yearly to restructure contracts to make cap space. The Bills-Chiefs are literally a toss-up over the last 3 seasons. Every single game between them has come down to 1-2 plays. It sucks that we keep coming out on the short-hand in the playoffs. But that doesn't prove their team OR their front office is vastly superior. It's much much closer than anyone wants to give us credit for.

5 straight years making the playoffs (and 6 of the last 7 years). 4 straight years winning the division and at least one playoff game. The second highest winning percentage (.697) in all of professional sports over the last 5 years. Includes the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL. 4 straight years with a Top 10 scoring offense. Ranks were #6, #2, #3 and #2. 3 straight years with a Top 5 scoring defense. Ranks were #4, #2 and #1. 4 straight years Top 5 in scoring differential. 5 straight years Top 10. Please kill the nonsense that our front office doesn't know what it's doing. If the only standard for success is the Kansas City Chiefs, then every single GM in the league is a miserable failure.

Outside of Tyreek Hill, there aren't really any great examples of the Chiefs being willing to move on from their top players. It was really a one-time thing, because they desperately needed to upgrade the O-Line and simply couldn't afford to keep him. If the Bills were forced to trade away one of their best players in middle of their Super Bowl window, the fans would have screamed about bad roster management. And in moving on from Hill, their WR group has been amongst the NFL's worst over the past two years. The lack of weapons almost did them in this year. People are looking at the Bills cap situation vs. the Chiefs cap situation, and acting like they have a superior front office because they have more space. The difference is that Kansas City's pending free agents are Chris Jones and La'Jarius Sneed, along with their starting Left Tackle Donovan Smith, their other starting Defensive Tackle Derrick Nnadi and starting linebacker Willie Gay. Along with another 15-20 depth players. Not remotely the same situation. The Bills have been able to develop AND keep the majority of their best players. I'm not sure why we are applauding their cap management, because they are possibly losing their best cornerback. How much credit do the Bills get for getting a 3rd Round comp pick for Tremaine Edmunds, while at the same time upgrading him with Terrell Bernard? If the ball doesn't bounce off Darrel Luter's foot during the punt return, the Chiefs do not win the Super Bowl. If Zay Flowers stretches one more inch before fumbling into the endzone, the Chiefs do not win the AFC. Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to diminish the Chiefs accomplishment. They are a great team and deserve the Lombardi. But neither of those plays had anything to do with superior roster/cap management over the rest of the NFL. The Chiefs front office should get credit for putting together a roster consistently good enough to compete for the Super Bowl every year. That isn't easy. But so should the Buffalo Bills, 49ers, Ravens, etc. The difference between those teams is literally 1-2 lucky plays.

Praising their success is warranted. Pretending that every move they make is genius... that's just going too far. It reminds me of watching the NFL Draft and how every analyst would LOSE THEIR MINDS when Bill Belichick made a trade. "OH MY GOSH! HE MOVED DOWN THREE PICKS. HE'S PLAYING CHESS WHILE THE REST OF THE LEAGUE PLAYS CHECKERS." Well, not exactly. Now we see that without Tom Brady, the guy is actually a blow average GM and not really great at building a roster. I mean, Sneed is a good player. He's a free agent. The Chiefs have some options, and are considering tagging him and trading him. Maybe a team will give them a 1st Round Pick. Maybe not. Who really knows? And just because they were able to continue success without Tyreek Hill, doesn't mean they will have no issues getting rid of their top corner. As I've said before. It's amazing how a few close plays/games can totally change the narrative. The Chiefs barely scraped by the Bills, Ravens and 49ers. They easily could have lost any of those three games, if only a play or two were flipped. And if that happened, they would be getting tons of criticism for failing to surround Patrick Mahomes with enough receiving weapons, and protecting him with mediocre tackles. Instead the story is that Josh Allen, Lamar Jackson and Kyle Shanahan are postseason chokers, and the Chiefs are going to match the Patriots dynasty.

The Bills cap situation is nowhere near the catastrophe people want to make it. In the past, you had teams like the Saints (buying up every top free agent on the market) or the Rams (trading away top picks for star players). With the exception of the Von Miller move two years ago... literally one player contract, Brandon Beane has been consistent with his plan of building through the draft and getting low-priced free agents to fill-out the depth. Annual contract restructures are done by literally every team, including the 3x World Champion Kansas City Chiefs we have been desperately trying to catch. They only become an issue when the player becomes old/ineffective and you can no longer part ways. Restructuring Josh Allen every year holds zero risk. Because when he becomes old and ineffective, the team falls apart and needs a rebuild anyway. We will continue using this method every year to clear $20-30 million, and it will be OK. Trust me. They aren't doing this with every contract on the team. Only a handful each year who strategically make sense. The only current contracts the Bills have which are really a burden are with Miller (as already mentioned), and possibly Stefon Diggs. Both have outs in 2024. So if we can get by one more year "kicking the can down the road" - we can clear a lot of cap space by next offseason. The idea that our cap problems will continue to compound infinitely simply isn't true. Everyone freaked out last year, because the Bills were leaving huge holes at Middle Linebacker and Right Tackle. Then Terrell Bernard and Spencer Brown developed and stepped up. Everything was OK. So as long as Beane continues to draft well, we can continue rolling. We enter this offseason with questions at WR2, DE, DT and FS. We should be able to address at least two of those spots with minimal cap space, and the others with draft picks.

The best way to avoid salary cap hell is by drafting well. The Saints were headed into a very bad financial situation several years back. But then the 2017 draft class netted them 5 very good starters (Lattimore, Ramczyk, Williams, Kamara and Hendrickson). That allowed them to extend their window significantly. Brandon Beane has been a solid/good drafter during his tenure here, regardless of what some fans say. He consistently gets 2-3 starting caliber players every single year, allowing the team to replace outgoing veterans (such as Tremaine Edmunds with Terrell Bernard) and get little to no drop-off. I'm confident the same thing will happen this season. What the Bills could REALLY use is a homerun draft. Something closer to what 2017-2018 netted us. Instead of getting 2-3 solid guys, if we could end up with 4-5. Instead of just being solid starters, maybe we could get an All-Pro or two in the mix. It would also be nice for rookies to make a more immediate impact. It seems like the majority of Beane's picks are slow-burners. They do little to nothing as rookies and then take 3-4 years to really get going. The most recent examples are Ed Oliver and AJ Epenesa.

I've been watching this team since the late 1980s. Now my kids are the same age I was during the Super Bowl years. My grandfather passed away without seeing the Bills win the Super Bowl. Now my father is over 70. Yeah, it's nice to have a player like Josh Allen under center. But I've experienced having great players before. Even the drought teams had some fantastic individual talents that I enjoyed watching like LeSean McCoy, Kyle Williams, etc. What I've never experienced is seeing my team a top the football world... not even just ONE time. When I sit back and consider that Brady and Mahomes have enough rings to fill up two hands, while my own family is on the 4th generation of fandom and still has nothing to show for it. That's why my full focus is on the Lombardi.

Umm. The Chiefs won the Super Bowl. You can downplay them all you want, but the Ravens and 49ers failed to stop them too. Betting lines should not be taken as gospel, or an accurate representation of anything on the football field. The goal of Vegas is to get away with as much of the public's money as possible. Period.

It wasn't so much about the sheer number of players the Bills were missing across the lineup. It was the number of players they were missing at one position, and how that matched up against Kansas City. Everyone knows the Chiefs offense runs primarily through Travis Kelce. In our Defensive system, the Tight Ends are usually covered by Linebackers. The Bills were down both of their starting LBs in Matt Milano and Terrell Bernard. Their top backup Tyrell Dodson was gutting it through a shoulder injury, and then hurt his ankle during the game. They were also down their #5 backer in Baylon Spector. This left rookie Dorian Williams and AJ Klein (who was signed off the street two weeks earlier, and also got injured during the game) to handle probably the best TE in football.

Good News: The Bills championship window will remain open as long as Josh Allen can play at an elite level, and Brandon Beane can put a good roster around him. I have very few doubts this team will be among the top contenders again next season, if they can stay healthy at the key spots. The worries about this year's salary cap are totally overblown. I actually think the Bills are in better financial shape than even last offseason. There are some common-sense restructures (Allen, Rasul Douglas, Taron Johnson) and cuts that will clear space. I'm sad to say goodbye to Tre White, but we will be fine without him. Same with Jordan Poyer/Micah Hyde, who really showed their age this season. If we can bring back DaQuan Jones and either Leonard Floyd/AJ Epenesa, the D-Line will be fine. The big need is WR and this draft is loaded in that area. After that, we likely need a pair of safeties. But good ones can be found on Day 2 of the draft, and in the bargain-bin of free agency. No team is better at coaching up the secondary. The rest of the draft will be for getting younger and looking towards the future. Every other position is in good shape. No need for a reset/reboot. Bad news: Allen probably isn't an elite QB when he isn't using his legs. The Bills tried this year to take that away from his game, almost certainly in an attempt to extend his future career. The offense was terribly inconsistent, and it almost cost us the playoffs. When he started running again, the team went on a win-streak and claimed the division. When will age catch-up with our quarterback is anyone's guess. But that is the main reason I feel a sense of urgency. Not because of free agency or the salary cap.

Not sure I agree here. Allen had his WR open in the endzone with a 3 point deficit, and he should have ignored him in favor of milking the clock? That seems like a really conservative mindset, and in some ways could be considered "playing for the tie." It's hard to score in the Redzone, so I think you take the shot when it presents itself. I think he did the correct thing 100%. I can guarantee that if Mahomes had a WR open in the endzone in the Super Bowl, he would have taken the shot too. The time ran down because the 49ers were keeping everything in front of them, and they were unable to do anything else. Not because he's superior in situational awareness. And at the end of the day, he was unable to give his team the lead in regulation. That also left the 49ers with a chance to win the game. Again... this is why I get frustrated with how the media analyzes the legacy of football players and teams. There are SO MANY factors that go into every win/loss. There are SO MANY players who have a role. It truly is a game of inches, and unlike other sports where you have a best of 7 game series, the NFL is one and done. The difference between hoisting the Lombardi trophy and going home a loser... can literally come down to the ball bouncing off the foot of a special teams player that nobody has ever heard of. People feel the need to prop up Mahomes over every other QB because of his Super Bowl rings. So they come up with all these "reasons" that he's vastly superior to Josh Allen, Joe Burrow, Lamar Jackson, etc., etc. They used to do the same thing when comparing Tom Brady to Peyton Manning. Or Joe Montana to Dan Marino. In truth, there are lots of reasons why the Chiefs have 3 recent titles and the Bills have none... and virtually none of them have to do with Allen being an inferior QB to Mahomes.

You are buying into the media narrative. There are 22 starters on every team and almost 50 players on the roster competing every single week. But they want to make everything about the Quarterback position, and some magical ability to "will their team to victory" in the big game. Patrick Mahomes (as usual) is getting all the credit for Sunday's game. But the truth is, he did almost nothing until the final quarter. His defense played incredible all day and kept the game within reach. The 49ers had a terrible muffed punt, which led to an easy one-play touchdown. That was followed up a missed extra point, which allowed the Chiefs to tie the game and send it to overtime. Yes, he took advantage when SF left the door open. But those two special teams plays don't happen, and Mahomes almost certainly comes out on the losing end. Josh Allen has played GREAT in his postseason career. 272 yards per game. 64.6 completion percentage. 100 passer rating. 21 touchdowns and only 4 turnovers. The media wants to turn him into a playoff choker (because everything must be about the QB), but the reality is that he's anything but. It's a ridiculously LAZY take. But football is complicated and it's easier for these clowns to argue on tv about Tom Brady vs. Joe Montana vs. Mahomes, as opposed to doing a deep-dive into strategy, play-calling, matchups, etc. etc. The real question is why Stefon Diggs never shows up in the playoffs? Why does the pass rush (and defense as a whole) always disappear in the big playoff games?

I keep saying this... but there isn't a magic bullet that will suddenly break the Bills through the playoff wall. In the NFL, there just isn't a huge gap between the top and bottom teams. Each year, there are a handful of top contenders who are on roughly the same level. Once we reach the Divisional/Championship Rounds, those teams start playing each other and knocking each other out. Sometimes it comes down to which team is healthiest. Sometimes one team is hot and the other team is in a slump. Sometimes the game is close and comes down to a couple lucky bounces. Back in 2020, the Bills were really an inexperienced fringe Super Bowl contender and the Chiefs were the class of the NFL. They would have needed everything to work their way to pull-off the upset in the Championship Game, but it just didn't happen. Since that point (three years in a row now), we've lost key defensive players that have hurt us badly against elite QBs in the playoffs. 2021 was Tre White on Thanksgiving. 2022 was Micah Hyde early and Von Miller on Thanksgiving. This year was Matt Milano early, and then Terrell Bernard, Christian Benford and a huge chunk of the secondary at the end. The Bills have been the NFL's second-best regular season team over the last four years (only topped by the Chiefs). In that same time period, we have seen the Buccaneers and Rams win a Super Bowl. We have seen the Bengals, Eagles and 49ers make the Super Bowl. Those are the only six teams in the league who can argue at having more success than us. I'm as frustrated as anybody. Hopefully the Bills can continue to put themselves in position, and (at least) one of these years the mathematical odds will work in our favor.

But he's really not the "best player in the league by miles." That's the issue. Statistically speaking, Patrick Mahomes and Josh Allen are almost identical over the last 4 seasons. Yards, Touchdowns, Etc. Even their head-to-head record is 4-3, with most of those games coming down to the final minutes and finishing less than one-score apart. The only obvious separation between Mahomes/Allen is in postseason success. The Bills win in the regular season. The Chiefs win in the playoffs and end up in the Super Bowl. Of course the media is going to turn all of that upon the Quarterback (or possibly Head Coach depending on which narrative they are pushing at the time). But that's a lazy take. In the 13 seconds game, Allen put the winning score on the board and then watched from the bench while the rest of the team choked it away. A few weeks ago, he fired the go-ahead TD into the Endzone...only to have his Left Tackle get knocked into him during the release. Two plays later, his kicker missed the chance to at least tie. Mahomes is great. And he deserves plenty of praise. But it's the same argument we saw in the past with Tom Brady vs. Peyton Manning. One gets propped up higher simply because of team success.

This is just a silly take. He traded for Stefon Diggs, who in 4 seasons has put together the 4 best receiving seasons in Bills history. In free agency, he landed a premium slot receiver in Cole Beasley. He also got very good value for John Brown, who put up 1,000 yards in his first season here. So far, he hasn't drafted a WR before the 4th Round. Yet we got starting-level production from Gabe Davis and Khalil Shakir had a nice breakout season this year. If you want to argue that Brandon Beane hasn't used enough resources on the WR room, I guess that's fair. But we also need to remember that we have 53 roster spots and 22 starting roles, with only so many draft picks and limited cap space. You can't address everything every single year. Beane has admitted he wanted a WR in last year's draft, but he didn't want to trade up and they were all gone. So he took the best receiving threat remaining, which was Dalton Kincaid. Looking at the upcoming draft, he probably made the correct decision. Kincaid is developing into an elite Tight End, and this year's draft is absolutely loaded with talent. We will get at least one, if not multiple WR prospects.