GunnerBill

There are way better options than him IMO. If it came to it, sure, but I'd much prefer most of the other guys. The stories I have heard he is likely walking. Winfield won't hit the market. He is the best FA safety out there. The second best is Kamren Curl IMO. I'd love him. I'm hoping his reputation not being that big will keep him affordable but I don't know.

McDermott is the more powerful he is ultimately accountable for the successor failure of the Buffalo Bills football team. But I don't think he is directly accountable for individual draft decisions - that is Brandon Beane.

Rest assured I am not judging him against those other guys in terms of success in the elite Allen era - so 2020 onwards. I think 2017-2019 the comparison for the Bills was against what had gone before but since Allen's 3rd year when he blossomed into a top tier guy that is not the bar. The bar is much higher. I just don't think - with the one notable exception in 2021 that Sean McDermott is the reason the Bills haven't reached that bar.

I have clarified this for you before - Brandon Beane runs the draft. He is in charge of personnel. I have had that confirmed by people who are in the building too. What I do think though is that Sean McDermott is of the two the more powerful personality in the building. It is ultimately his show. If he wanted Beane fired he'd get it. If he wanted to veto a particular draft pick I think he'd have the power to do that. But the reality is that isn't how they operate. He has total faith in Beane to run the personnel side and that is how it works. They collaborate pretty closely and I know McDermott sits in on the meetings where they set their final board prior to the draft. But in terms of running the draft and making the picks it is Brandon's call. If they are close between two players he will ask Sean, he will ask Brian Gaine and Terrence Gray but he ultimately makes the decision. I was told the guy who actually had the most influence on the draft beyond Beane was actually Joe Schoen while he was here not Sean McDermott. And I think the fact that the Bills drafting patterns so closely reflect the Panthers drafting patterns during the 10 years Beane was in senior front office roles there rather reinforce the view that the draft strategy the Bills execute is Brandon Beane's strategy. I don't think the Bills have spent enough draft capital on receiver. But Beane grew up in a Panthers organisation that was famous for undervaluing wide receiver in his time there. Four day 1 or 2 picks on the position in 10 drafts in Carolina. Zero in 6 drafts here. This is not a coincidence.

I would rank NFC guys first too. But of the AFC guys I still think it is Josh Allen.

I certainly haven't gone deep into any of the late round guys but Carter Bradley and Joe Milton are the two toolsy guys later on I'm interested in. That's the kind of guy I'm interested in the Bills taking a shot rather than a kind of physically limited college game manager. No more Jake Fromm types.

In which case I take it back.... we do have that spectrum the same way around. I'm not sure I quite agree with top 10 but Baker has more ability than Brock IMO. The thing that has held Baker back is Baker. If he has truly humbled himself and keeps his head down in Tampa rather than letting his relative success this year re-inflate his ego he can be a long term 5-10 year starter for the Buccs.

Yea, but we are not drafting any of the guys @NeverOutNick has listed here. They are gone by the 3rd absolute latest.

I'm interested on who is where on this scale..... because I think I might not be imagining them where you intend them to be.

Then stick to Madden.

Mac still wouldn't be a franchise QB. Could he be a serviceable lower grade starter? Sure. That's possible.

The 2022 playoff game here I totally throw out. I don't think he schooled McDermott. I just think the Bills did not turn up at all. I don't think Vince Lombardi as Head Coach with Belichick as DC and Walsh as OC would have won that game for the Bills that day. The players just looked done to my eye. They played with zero energy the whole game and Josh Allen looked like a zombie. I throw that out. It wasn't a coaching loss. It was a total team loss. It was over from the first drives on each side. It is the only game the Bills have lost by more than a single score since November 2021. Sure Taylor had a great win in KC in a playoff game. I don't take that away from him at all. But that was a game that went to overtime that came down to a play here and a play there and went the Bengals way. I see Taylor coach poorly way too often in regular season games. Their own fans will tell you he isn't that much cop as a playcaller and basically gets bailed out by having Joe Burrow, Ja'marr Chase and Tee Higgins. I don't think the Bills are incapable of beating the Chiefs in the playoffs. We have beaten the Chiefs twice in the last two years where it has been a play here or a play there that has gone our way. In the post-season those plays have gone their way. I don't think that is a reflection of coaching (with the 13 second exception). The Bills this year were right were they needed to be in that game despite all their injuries on defense and just couldn't finish. If people want to take the "he should have been fired after 13 seconds" position I understand it, don't agree, but understand. If he'd have missed the playoffs this season I'd have fired him - that is fireable in my book when you have Josh Allen. But losing by a field goal to Mahomes and Reid in the playoffs isn't fireable and certainly isn't a reflection on who he is as a coach. If he starts losing playoff games where he has a clear Quarterback advantage I'll start calling for him to be fired, I assure you. If he starts missing the playoffs, likewise. Equally if it gets back to "actually we are getting blown out by Mahomes" then fine, move on. But losing a game that could have gone either way and where we were right there... no. That doesn't tell me we have the wrong coach.

I don't think Taylor is a better coach than McDermott. Nor do I think it is obvious that Dan Campbell is. He has done an excellent job turning around the Lions. McDermott did an excellent job turning around the Bills. But the next step is to turn that into winning. I know the answer will come back "but McDermott has Josh Allen!" yes.... but he keeps losing to Patrick Mahomes. I'll repeat again if McDermott was losing to bums in the playoffs it would be a different matter. I'd be where a lot of you guys are. To be honest if he had lost x3 in the playoffs to Joe Burrow and Zac Tayor and x1 to Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid I'd be there too. But he keeps losing to a dynasty and a QB who is going to be in the GOAT conversation. Our last 4 games against Kansas City have gone down to the final drive and we are 2-2. Sadly they have won the two that mattered most. McDermott is to blame for 13 seconds. There is no question there and some can't get past that, which I understand, but don't agree with. Otherwise I think we just have to keep banging on the door and one of those tight playoff meetings will go our way.

I agree with you re. the trade. Of course if they knew for definite what JJ was going to be they'd have picked him. But he was not a sure thing. He was a slot receiver at LSU being projected as a wideout in the NFL. That is why he went where he did and not in the top 10 and the Bills need at the time was absolutely for a sure thing to help elevate Josh. Trade that worked for both. On the misuse of Josh some of it is Josh himself though. He has admitted, and it is definitely true when you watch him, that he plays better when the ball is in his hands. I don't think you can ask Josh to just "manage a game" and be a distributor. That isn't when he plays his best. Of course they need to put better weapons around him, no question about that, but I don't think you will ever turn Josh into a cerebral guy who just gets the ball to his playmakers. He is always going to bail pockets too early some times looking for the big play, run when it isn't the wisest decision, hurdle defenders when he could slide etc. I think it is just who he is.

He worked under McDermott who ran the cover 3 (although slightly different variant of it) in Carolina. But agree when he has run defenses as a coordinator he has been a nickel base, blitz heavy guy. Which isn't really what the 49ers have run previously.

Traded down twice before he picked James Cook in the 2nd too. Think that is it. End of the 2nd in 2022 and then day 3 trade backs last year. The 2022 trade backs he pretty nuch admitted they had no second round grades left so were into a bunch of guys at the top of their 3rd round board. Last year I don't know, but I suspect, they had emptied their entire board out so every time someone called they said yes and if nobody called they were picking guys they'd marked up as potential priority free agents. I have said before (though I don't know this it is just a feeling based on how they operate and how they have drafted) that they are one of the teams working with a smaller draft board. Not Belichickian 80 to 90 players maybe but certainly not far into three figures.

Yea I am still there on Nix. I can't unsee everything I have seen. Just looking at his Oregon career I'd say he has a high floor even if not the highest ceiling. But I have seen his floor. And it freaking stinks. I dunno. I think he is scheme over substance. I haven't dug properly into the film but that's where I start with him.

No he didn't. His defense stopped Mahomes multiple times while Kyle's offense was stuck in neutral failing to remember they had Christian effing McCaffrey to hand it to. Then the special teams screwed up and handed the Chiefs a score. I am not a huge Steve Wilkes fan. I didn't like that hire to start with. But his defense was not the problem on Sunday.

And all four of those 10 point comebacks are against either Tom Brady or Patrick Mahomes. They will end up the two greatest to ever do it by the time Pat retires. Not sure it proves any point whatsoever.

Those two sentences are slightly contradictory. I think in their near two decades of dominance the Pats swept the East twice - hence the AFCE having a slightly better rate of success against them. Also 9-7 made the playoffs plenty of times in the 16 game season. If you could nick one against the Pats then 8-6 the rest of the way would get you in. I agree that a dominant team impacts the records of the other teams and in a 16 or 17 game sample size it arguably impacts it too greatly, but at the same time The Bills have won four divisions in a row and three times the runner up have won double digit games. So I do think it is stronger now than at any time since the initial Rex Ryan effect wore off in NY.

Josh has had two good olines in his 6 years IMO - 2020 (again accept there is a covid year caveat) and 2023. The line in 2018 was an abomination (Brandon Beane admitted he did a "terrible job" that year with the line in his end of season presser), the line in 2019 was improved but still below average, 2021 it sucked for 3/4s of the year but played well down the stretch and in the playoffs and 2022 it just sucked all year. I kind of think offensive line is a spot where you are always going to need to fill a hole or two for cheap. I don't think when you are paying a QB you can also pay five studs up front. They missed big on Cody Ford, that hurt, they took a bit of a project in Brown who has just had his best year but after we lived through considerable growing pains in years 1 and 2. I think there is some truth to the idea that it hasn't been the top priority, that's fair, but I think their mixed performance on the offensive line is a combination of factors that includes resource allocation but also includes bad talent evaluations, injuries and development issues too (plus coaching actually.... wasn't a fan of Castillo or Bobby Johnson). So I'm not giving them a pass on resource allocation on the oline but I think it is more a combination of factors distinct from wide receiver where to me it is purely they simply haven't allocated enough premium resource to the spot.

The AFC has been the better conference. Without question. I accept the AFCE has been an easier division than the NFCW, that is fair, I'm not sure I buy the AFCE has been as easy as it has since the 90s.... there was a run there after the Jets with Rex until the Bills rose up where no second placed team won double digit games. It has happened in three of the four years that the Bills have won the division. Put the 49ers in the AFC playoff field I doubt they have made a Superbowl. They would get out Quarterbacked too often. Put the Bills in the NFC playoff field I am pretty confident they'd have made at least one.

I voted for 1. But it is a combination of all 3.

Yea Moss suffered from a combination of our style not meshing with his and injuries and a bad oline for some of his time here. I think he was overdrafted though. He was never a 3rd round talent. If they'd picked him rounds 4 or 5 fine.

To be fair they have had some success with lower end FAs on the OL. They got a good season out of Quinton Spain in 2019 before they fell out with him and they got a good season out of Williams at right tackle in 2020 (albeit Covid year wae the easiest year to play OL). Didn't get great value from the contract extensions in either case though. They have taken a lot of shots at OL in FA. They have just not got the right guy often enough. I was never a Feliciano fan and I knew Roger Saffold was a disaster waiting to happen. They have made three day two picks in six drafts which isn't awful. The issue is one of those was Ford who is arguably their biggest bust (though Elam may snag that title from him).