Perry Turtle

It makes sense to focus on Allen's strengths instead of his weaknesses. He's easily the most talented QB on the Bills roster, but if the Bills coaching staff is going to keep him on the bench while trying to turn him into a rhythm passer, Allen will turn into a bust. Allen is more Roethlisberger than he is Brady. Keeping him on the bench while trying to turn him into a dink and dunk passer is a waste of everybody's time. His strengths are throwing to the sidelines, using play action, and extending plays to throw downfield. Build the offensive game plan around that and watch opposing defense move the eighth man out of the box, letting Shady run wild. Oh, and start him week 1. Let him learn on the field. He has enough skills and nerve to overcome his mistakes.

Yeah, he's not. Watching didn't help Manuel, Johnson, Losman, Jones, or Taylor. The NFL is a sink or swim league. There's no such think as apprenticeship. And the team can't spend a year not knowing if Allen is the guy, because if he's not the guy, it's malpractice to spend 3 years figuring it out. Start him now. If he's a true NFL QB he'll survive the lumps he receives. If it breaks him, the team can work on finding his replacement.

How much time do you think the coaches have to spend working on a players footwork during the season? NFL coaches don't spend much time on fundamentals. Rob Johnson, Fitzpatrick, Tyrod, Cardale Jones all had fundamental flaws. Every off-season fans talked about the coaching staff fixing those flaws, and it NEVER happened. QBs need experience, but gaining experience is much different than fixing flaws, no matter how fatal they may be. As long as there is no additional risk of injury, Allen should start this year. The Bills need to know if he has the skill to play in the NFL and understand that if he doesn't, more time on the bench won't help him.

And if McCarron is the starter, Culley is going to spend 95% of his time with him. If the coaching staff determines that Allen needs to change his mechanics, they should bring in a coach to specifically work with him.

QBs fail because they don't have the skill set to be a starting QB in the NFL. Whether they are forced to start or not makes no difference.

As long as Allen improves, he gets time. He's got some real issues in his game, and will need to show improvement to become the starter. If he doesn't show improvement, he's going to be a bust. Accuracy issues start with mechanics, and mechanics are not easy to fix. The difficult thing is that McCarron isn't a fully-developed starter either. He's going to need significant coaching to give the Bills a chance to win each week. The coaching staff won't have enough reps during the season to fix Allen's mechanics and get McCarron ready for the games during the week.

Definitely. I just see this as Beane's signature move. Hopefully it works out, but the fact is that there will probably only be one starter on the field this year from this draft. This high-risk/high-reward move is more in line with Whaley's GM style than the methodical approach McDermott and Beane have been selling.

I hope your confidence is well-placed. It would be awesome to see a guy like Allen throw the ball around the field with accuracy. Fixing a QB's mechanics is just near-impossible in the NFL.

So if Allen is Beane's guy, does Beane get fired if Allen is a bust?

Eh, it was great they finished a game over .500, and breaking the drought was huge, but they caused the dearth of talent on the roster, and for that, the jury is still out on them. In the end, they'll rise and fall with the Allen pick, regardless of nonsense about culture or process. They've bet a lot on a QB with real accuracy issues, when accuracy is the top skill a QB possesses in the modern NFL.

And yet the "collection of talent" of 2014 and "TEAM" of 2017 both had a 9-7 record.

Deshaun Watson

That was Roger Vick, fullback.

I think you have those two backwards. Mayfield played the first two series of the game, but then left the game to be with his ill mother. Allen started slowly, but caught fire and threw 2 TDs in the 2nd half.

They say that if you're talking about retirement, you have already retired. Be true to yourself Tom, make it official and schedule that weepy press conference!

Whether you trade up or not is irrelevant. What really matters is that the front office is good enough to identify a franchise QB in the draft. Philadelphia's front office was good enough to recognize Wentz as a legit franchise QB. Cleveland's front office wasn't. If you believe that Beane's front office has the ability to identify a franchise QB in the draft, then you shouldn't worry about the Bills trading up. If you don't believe that Beane can't identify a franchise QB in the draft, then you hope he stays out and keeps the draft picks. At the same time though, you should hope that Beane is replaced, because who wants a GM who can't fill the most important position on the team (see Whaley).

If the question is would Foles be as good if Belichick had tape on him, I'd point out that Belichick had tape of Foles from the NFC title game, where Foles played the game of his life and couldn't stop him in the SB.

Well watching the way that the Pats secondary locked this game down, it's understandable why Billchick didn't think Butler was needed. (Sarcasm off)

The new XFL is going to be dead on arrival. It won't have the talent level to be anywhere as competitive as the NFL and it won't ever have the tradition or loyalty of college football. People don't want to watch bad football, that's why every league that has tried to compete with the NFL crashed and burned. Wasn't there a league a couple of years back that featured JP Losman? Who watched that crap? Now fans are going to watch Johnny Manziel try to play QB? It's not going to be exciting; it's going to be pathetic. Every horrible play is going to remind people that the the league is nowhere near the quality of the NFL. The empty, dark, quiet stadiums are going to remind fans that college football has a much better atmosphere. The USFL thought they had the plan by playing spring football. But after a few seasons of watching team's fold, they realized that the market for spring football is a myth. The USFL did have good talent, but that was before player salaries took off due to revenue sharing. And even then competing financially with the NFL broke the league. In the modern day NFL where television contracts are in the billions and start players are signing for 10s of millions of dollars, there's no way the XFL will be able to compete. And finally, the NFL has every network covered. There's no way those networks are going to give the XFL the time of day while they are partners with the NFL. This has all been done before. Non-traditional markets, non-traditional seasons, players on the cheap, gimmicks out the wazoo (anyone know who won the arena league last year, oh yeah). And if anyone believes that the new XFL is going to be better officiated than the NFL, just think back to the replacement refs in the NFL a couple of seasons ago. Those guys will probably be first in line for jobs in the XFL and they were awful.

Taylor is going to be a backup QB in the NFL until he's 40. The new XFL won't last 18 months.

Why doesn't Vince just pick a night and a football stadium, pile his 100 million in cash on the 50 yard line, and set fire to it. He would get a sellout crowd and guarantee super bowl type ratings on TV. That would be a better use of his money than starting another piece of s### league. Johnny Manziel is a target for the league? RGIII? Tebow? Who in their right mind is going to spend even 10 dollars to watch those losers try to play football. And if the thought is that this is the perfect antidote for the NFL in the alt-right bible belt, well those folks already have a professional football league. It's called college football. This thing is going to flop just like the last one, and just like every other non NFL pro league has flopped over the last 50 years.

True, the majority of the current staff wasn't in place during the '17 draft, but McDermott was, and he was the key decision-maker at the time. If McDermott wanted a QB at 10, the Bills would have drafted one. And his passing on Watson (and maybe Mahomes) does raise questions about his approach to the QB position. Maybe the new front office team will be able to influence McDermott's approach to finding a franchise QB this year, but as McDermott is still the franchise's key decision maker, there should be concerns if you want the Bills finally fix their 18 year old issues at QB in this draft.

Moving into the top 5 is relatively easy. Last year the Chiefs moved onto the top 10 from 27 by trading their next year's first. The Bills could do the same thing. Trade into the top 10 by packaging 22 and next year's first. They could then make a deal with Indy or SF by trading the top ten pick and 21 to move into top 5. The bigger question is can this front office successfully identify a franchise QB? The Redskins failed with RGIII. The Eagles succeeded with Wentz. So how successful will the current front office be in the effort to find a true franchise QB? Passing on Watson last draft doesn't inspire confidence. If they're not confident about their ability to find a franchise QB in the draft class, then just trade a 2nd and next year's 3rd for Alex Smith and use the 1st round picks to build a dominant front 7.

I agree. Cousins and a 1st round QB is an either/or situation. Paying Cousins elite money and then missing an opportunity to draft him some help in the first round would be a disastrous move. Conversely, you would want to help a rookie QB with as many FA dollars as possible, so tying up money in Cousins while drafting a 1st round QB also wouldn't make sense.

Cleveland? Stupid? Um, yep.