BarleyNY

Yeah, I hate that Kidd is right. If/when the Bills become a regular playoff team or win a championship guy's like Kyle and Fred have a better chance. No player from the drought era is going to get in as long as the drought continues.

Thanks, I appreciate you taking my comment as intended. I really do hope Sammy has matured, for his own sake. But I'm too old to take it as fact without first seeing what adversity reveals.

Easy to act mature when there's no adversity. Let's see how Sammy's doing if/when there's a problem. That'll tell us where he is.

Anytime.

People in Cleveland hold Dawson in very high regard. He is definitely a quality hire. He missed out on some GM spots he interviewed for, but I suspect he'll get one before too long. Hope we hang on to him for a bit here first though.

Safety is paper thin. Hyde is a quality starter, but that's pretty much it. Poyer needs to take a huge step forward from last season with the Browns. Maybe supporting cast and scheme change will do him well.

The three team that traded out of pick 2, 10 & 12 where the QBs were selected all needed QBs, but they all traded out anyway. All three teams have regimes that are on their first or second season. Only one of the 3 teams that traded up was in that position - Chicago who went from 3 to 2 - and they traded out with SF who might be waiting on Cousins. For those reasons and because Trubisky was out of range for B-lo anyway I'll disregard that trade. KC-Buffalo and Houston-Cleveland are different situations. KC and Houston are feeling pressure to find their QBs of the future, take a step forward and win now. Both look to be a QB away. But was either Mahomes or Watson really worth it? Two very QB needy teams didn't think so. I didn't see it in those two (or Trubisky for that matter). It sure looks like KC and Houston moved up and reached due to the pressure to win now. The teams that moved back didn't see QBs worth at top 10 or 12 pick and took advantage of the teams that needed a shot at one right now.

Exactly. Lots of people don't understand odds and bet size.

Speed certainly helps in any system, but that's not entirely true. Certain skill sets fit certain systems. Luckily Darby showed he was getting a good feel for zone in college so it looks like he'll be a good fit. Here are a couple scouting reports: http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/draft/players/1998179/ronald-darby http://www.nfl.com/draft/2015/profiles/ronald-darby?id=2552689

Agreed. There is a lot that impacts sack numbers: scheme, luck, supporting cast, etc. it's all about having players that can beat their man, get pressure and finish plays when they have the chance. Thank god we're back to an aggressive, one-gap scheme. (The Browns are too, which is great for Garrett.)

Cautiously optimistic. Long term this could be a very good situation, but this group of new coaches and new FO people (which aren't even all hired yet) are still a work in progress. Early returns are definitely reason to believe good things can happen. But it'll take some time.

Only 16 players had 10 or more sacks in 2016. Beasley was the sack leader at 15.5 and Von Miller was second with 13.5. If Shaq gets 10 or more, then he'd be well, well beyond a solid contributor.

Playing the "Real Fan" card and dividing everyone on this board into two BA groups are two of the douchiest moves one can make on this board.

To be fair, he said "games" plural. In all seriousness, is anyone here satisfied with Taylor under center if we're down 5 at our own 25 with 3 timeouts and 2 minutes to go? Is anyone here confident? Anyone taking a straight up bet for their mortgage payment at that point?

No way would he be top 2 in next year's class. There are at least 3 QBs that are likely to come out in 2018 that would go before Mahomes. Although he certainly would have had a chance to improve his draft stock by playing another year of college ball. Everything is subject to change though. A year ago Kizer was projected to go 1st overall. Mahomes is highly talented, but very raw even by current standards. He has to make a giant leap to the NFL. He's a classic high risk-high reward QB. He probably won't hit big, but if he does - JACKPOT! I'd rank the top 3 as: Darnold, Rosen and Allen. Mahomes and Rudolph would be vying for 4 and 5.

This. The Bills playing the run well would go a long way in improving that side of the ball.

Just out of curiosity, why exactly is Sammy agreeing to an extension? Why wouldn't he choose a deal from a team where he would be used more and, thus, more valuable? Why would the Bills offer as much as a team that would get more out of him?

It'll probably be closer to a $3M difference. His option would've been for $13.3M. The 2017 franchise tag numbers haven't been calculated yet, but it was $15.7M got 2016. Lots needs to happen for that. He's got to stay healthy and he's got to get fed the ball. Neither is a given by any stretch. The the Bills need to be comfortable tagging him or giving him a big extension. That will depend on his productio and their comfort level with his long term health. And let's not forget that any long term deal needs Sammy's blessing. The Bills probably can't tag him more than once (that's where the option would've been handy). Reality is that 2017 is almost certainly it for Sammy in Buffalo. But maybe they can tag and trade him if he stays healthy.

I have an issue with weaker armed QBs. Since 2008 QBs who have been clocked at under 55mph have not been successful with only a few exceptions. Those exceptions are: Jake Locker (54mph, 2011), Tyrod Taylor (50mph, 2011) and Dak Prescott (54mph, 2016). Peterman clocked in at 54mph this year. I know he's not strong armed, but I'm okay with 54mph. Here's a spreadsheet to check out: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_-SienfT3umX0HKxRyQqyXM9BqHrotdcQA6W-V_pDiY/htmlview?pli=1#

I really did not like this year's QB class much at all. Not sure what you saw in it. Lots of QBs got pushed up in this one because there was no top end talent. Two QBs that should've been late first round picks go 2 and 10 and a second round QB goes 12. Yeeesh. Kudos to SF, Buffalo and Cleveland for hosing some desperate teams. Whaley didn't chose anything in this draft, it was all McD. He chose his players. On that note, I'm very happy with the Peterman pick especially considering where we got him. He was the only QB who's game film didn't make me cringe. Every other one of the top QBs had issues bad enough for me to want to pass. His didn't "wow" me, but I didn't cringe either.

So all that has to happen for Watkins to stick around past 2017 is that:- The offense has to deviate from run first and pass much more than the last couple seasons - Tyrod has to be up to that challenge and be effective despite the increased passing workload - Watkins has to stay healthy despite a much increased workload and - Watkins has to have a career year, far exceeding his previous three seasons I'm not banking on single one of those things happening, much less all four.

It was a facade. They hired the guy they had already decided they wanted - and probably already had a handshake deal with. I've got no problem with any of that either. They obviously already know they work well together and Beane is already dialed into what McD likes/needs in players. If any inside ball got played in this last draft, then at least it was in favor of the Bills. Nice to be on the good side of something like that for a change. Let's roll.

Agreed. Thanks!

I'd do that in a heartbeat. It won't happen, but it'd be a great opportunity for a turnaround in B-lo. We could do what Cleveland did with RG3. Bring him in to pretend we are trying to compete, but tank hard. Then take a top QB prospect with our pick and still have two more 1st round picks to build up the roster. 2017 would suck, but we'd be on our way up as Brady and Belichick head to retirement. There'd be a lot of fun years in the horizon if they executed.

Correct. Banner was there McD's entire Philly career, so I'd think he'd know better. Of course, Banner's best years as Eagles President were when Reid was running the football side of things and Banner was only running the business side. But Banner started to get more involved in football ops when Reid was ousted. I highly doubt that Banner would be happy staying strictly on the business side, which he did not show any talent for. If McD wants a good business guy who's lousy at football ops, but will almost certainly try to meddle in them, then he's better off keeping Russ.