BillsFan4

Seems like a lot of drama with draft prospects this year...

I think Whaley is above average at pro personnel evaluation. That is definitely his strength IMO. If he were our pro personnel director, I think he'd be one of the best in the NFL. As a GM, he has been average to this point, IMO. As for his drafting, I think he is average to good, not great. He has his hits and misses, like every GM, and at times it seems like he is better at evaluating/drafting certain positions compared to others (but that could also be the scouting dept. or a # of other factors, too). There has been so much constant scheme/coaching change its hard to truly judge his drafting as of now. We've had a ridiculous number of different DC's/OC's/HC's in his time here. I do think Whaley is the best the Bills have had in quite a long time, but to be fair that bad isn't set very high. Personally, I would like to see the Bills actually keep the same coaching staff for a good 4-5 years and see what they can build. Bad teams stay bad by constantly firing coaches and changing directions. I think we can almost difinitely say at this point that we know constant upheaval & coaching change doesn't work... It'd be nice to try something new for a change.

There is still a long time before the season starts. This roster is FAR from set. If we were about to be starting the regular season i'd be more worried about it. We have the draft (and undrafted free agent signings). Lots of good players will be released between now and the start of the season too. Plenty of time still, to fill holes and add depth. It sucks that Pats signed away another Bills player, but Whaley found Gilislee off the street. He wasn't even on an NFL team. Nobody thought he'd turn into anything and we were all very pleasantly surprised. I am hopeful that the same thing can happen again. Whaley is pretty darn good at finding veteran role players. And who knows, maybe we already have a guy on the roster who can step in and fill the void.

You completely missed the point. The article itself says that they couldn't determine if the drivers were aftually impaired. They very well could have smoked pot 7 to 30 days before the accident, and got into a crash for a totally unrelated reason. If they were driving around smoking pot and it directly caused the accident, then it's different. But we don't know that, and the article you listed doesn't know it either. I had a buddy fail who smoked less than a single joint nearly a month before he was tested. I think it all depends on the person, their metabolism and their weight + body fat percentage (as it stores in your body fat IIRC).

That's some good work. Thanks for taking the time to do this. 17 sounds about right to me.

I know what you mean, but I am not necessarily like that. I was not excited about the Rex Ryan hire at all and said so from day 1. I wasn't all that excited by the Marrone hire either. Same with Chan Gailey. This is the first coaching hire in years that I am legitimately excited about. I have been a fan of his for years. I love the way he had Carolina's defense playing. They were usually a fun, exciting defense to watch and produced pretty good results too (top 10 defense 4 of the last 5 years). I really feel like this is the guy that can turn things around here. I know it's premature since he's so new. But I just think he has the right coaching traits and coaching philosophies to be very successful. Honestly, I want McDermott to get at least 4 or 5 years no matter what. Even if we bomb this year. I know that's a dangerous statement before he's even coached a game. But I really want to see what the Bills can do with the same HC for more than 2-3 years. I want the same scheme(s) for 4-5 years so we can actually build something.

I disagree with that, but then take Polian out of the equation. How do you explain the near universal praise by everyone as a "red flag"? Every coach, GM, player, ex-player, analyst (etc) who I have seen speak about the McDermott hire has offered praise. I can't remember seeing a single person say anything bad.

"a second AAA study discourages lawmakers from adopting arbitrary legal limits on marijuana use because of a lack of adequate methods to determine impairment by the drug.AAA officials said the studies about marijuana and driving, released Tuesday, are meant to encourage more comprehensive enforcement measures to improve road safety. Authorities in Washington recorded 436 fatal crashes in 2013, and determined that drivers involved in 40 crashes tested positive for THC, the active chemical in marijuana, according to the study. In 2014 they found that of 462 fatal crashes, 85 drivers tested positive for THC. The fatal crash study does not determine whether drivers were impaired, and it notes that there was no sign of an increase in fatal crashes among those with marijuana in their systems until a full 39 weeks after marijuana possession was legalized in the state. But the uptick in crashes by people testing positive for recent marijuana use also raises concern over the lack of adequate methods to determine whether drivers are actually impaired by marijuana when they get behind the wheel." The problem is that marijuana stays in people's system for 30 days or more...

They been rebuilding on and off for a long time, and they just hired one of the very best coaches in the entire NHL. They should be ahead of us. Agreed. They exceeded all expectations this year and look like a fantastic young team. There will definitely be more pressure on them next year to do as good/better. Lots of teams and players have had a good season. Doing it consistently every year is the hard part. But I have little doubt that the Leafs will be as good or better next year. Oh man, If they're able to snag a good defenseman this summer (from a team trying to avoid losing one to expansion, etc) I'm a little scared to think about it... lol.

Just about everyone has universally praised the McDermott hire. From Bill Polian to random NFL analysts to other head coaches around the NFL. McDermott is said to be very well respected if NFL circles.

My point wasn't really to defend Whaley or say I agree or disagree with the rankings. It was that these same ranking had Whaley draft's as 9th best the past 2 years, and I don't see how you legitimately go from them ranking you 9th best drafting team 2 years in a row to 25th best in a single season, especially when they say the 2 previous season are being taken into account. I was saying their ranking methods seemed flawed to me.

They are not referring to a restructure like Tyrod did, where they would take a pay cut. They are talking about a restructure, as in converting some of this year's salary into a signing bonus, that is then spread out over the rest of the years of the contract. I'm not even sure if they need the player's permission to do it, as they're not taking a pay cut but just receiving more money up front. I can't imagine a guy saying no anyway. But there's draw backs to it for the team. It would free up about $7 M each in cap space this year (roughly $14M-$15M total). But then both of their cap hits would be higher in each of the next years of their deal (roughly a $2 to $3 million higher per year, I believe, but I'm not exactly sure). It would also make their dead cap hits higher too, and make it harder to move on from them before their 5 year deals expire, because if they were released all of that restructured money that is left would hit the cap the year they were released (as it couldn't continue to be spread out over the length of the deal anymore). It creates cap space for this season, but it's basically just kicking the can down the road. So IMO, I see it as one of those "if we really have to do it" options. I think they'll probably try to avoid it if they can.

http://buffalonews.com/2017/04/22/jerry-hughes-anxious-see-bills-return-4-3-base-defensive-scheme/ This is a pretty good read. It gives a little glimpse at McDermott's coaching style thus far. I like a lot of what Jerry Hughes had to say.

I agree with Sal. I just don't see a QB worth a top 10 pick, and there's no way I'd pass on a sure fire starter, and potentially elite player at #10. Not for any of these QBs, who are all projects. The risk and value have to meet up, especially in the 1st round IMO, and the risk is just too great for me. I know some on here keep saying that his isn't a weak QB draft class. But how often is it that almost everyone seems to agree that there doesn't look to be even 1 day 1 starter among the QB class? If Mahomes or Trubisky are there in the 2nd, I definitely take one of them. Or I'd possibly even consider a low cost trade up into the early 2nd (or maybe even very late 1st) if they love the guy and the price is right, or they're able to trade back from #10 and grab more picks. I wouldn't be willing to give up much though, because the Bills don't have the picks to give up. Even though I don't want a QB at #10, I do feel that the Bills have done their due diligence on this QB class. They seem to have spent some serious time on the evaluation of,every main QB prospect, and that's all I can ask for at this point. So I will ultimately support whatever decision they make. If they don't feel there is a QB worth #10 overall, I will support it. If they do feel that there is a QB worth the #10 pick, I will support that too.... Whatever they do, I'm sure I'll voice my opinion, but I am surely not going state it like a fact as some others do, and sit here pretending I know more than the people who do this for a living and decide that they were dead wrong & should be fired, before we even have a chance to see how the decision plays out.

Good points. I hadn't thought about 2011 falling off. I just thought it seemed kind of strange for a team to fall 15+ spots in a single season. It wasn't just the Bills. There were a number of teams like that. If a team is truly good at drafting, I don't see how that can change so drastically in a single season, with the same scouts and GMs running the team (in most cases).

The Seahawks believed that Russel Wilson had franchise potential and waited until the 3rd to draft him. There were even those stories about how they were sweating bullets that the Bills would take him ahead of their pick in the 3rd. Oakland thought Carr had franchise potential and waited until the 2nd to draft him. There are plenty of stories like this throughout the years. Teams want players to meet the draft pick value. Teams talk about this often. They weigh the potential of that player not succeeding with the value of the pick and pull the trigger when they think it's right.

That's what I like to hear! This is what the a Bills should be trying to do. We have way too many roster spots left to fill yet, and id sure be nice to be able to fill some of those spots with a few extra draft picks. We will still have to sign a bunch of undrafted players after the draft, and probably some vet minimum signings too. But if the Bills can pick up an extra 2nd and/or 3rd (etc) I'd say that gives them a better shot at landing some quality players to fill some of those roster spots.

How is that a regurgitated statement when that was the first time he ever said it? It was at Bills camp in August 2015. He said it to WGR Radio and it was a BIG story. There were like 15 articles written about it the same day. Everyone was taking it out of context (like some still are today). Whaley took a ton of heat for that statement. That was the first and last time he ever said anything about QB purgatory.... lol There were even a couple of threads posted here about it - http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/179641-85-doug-whaley-on-wgr/ http://forums.twobillsdrive.com/topic/179652-whaley-admits-what-weve-suspected-bills-in-qb-purgatory/ I never said any of that stuff. You have me confused with someone else. That was a poster named YattaOkasan. I was just pointing out that in your original post you did in fact say that Tyrod got the coaching staff fired, and you didn't mention anything about the D or coaching. You only blamed Tyrod.

Dude, you literally just said it 30 minutes ago in this same thread...

He actually said this in 2015, and since you literally say this All the time, I thought maybe you'd want to read the actual quote in full - "We are almost in quarterback purgatory. We're good enough that we're not going to have the first or second [overall] pick," Whaley told WGR 550 on Wednesday. "We hope we're not in that position. Hopefully now we're drafting in the teens and the 20s and the 30s. So you're not going to get those college guys that are coming out. "Franchise quarterbacks hit the free-agent market? Name one. Unless they have an injury. So it's going to be an onus on our scouting staff to find a guy in the lower first round, second or third round. We accept that challenge. It's where we are, and it's been good that we have enough talent around that we're in that situation, but it's not an easy answer. There isn't [one]." http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/13382343/buffalo-bills-almost-quarterback-purgatory-gm-doug-whaley-says

This same article the last 2 years had the Bills ranked 9th. http://nypost.com/2016/04/24/ranking-from-1-32-the-nfls-best-teams-at-drafting/ http://nypost.com/2015/04/25/an-exhaustive-ranking-of-every-nfl-teams-draft-haul-since-2010/ How can a team go from 9th best drafting team to 25th best drafting team in a single year, especially when the article claims to be looking at the past 5 seasons and their own rankings had the Bills 9th in the 2 previous seasons...? Seems to me that they are mainly basing their rankings on how many games the Bills most recent draft picks played last season, and with the injuries to our top 2 picks that number is obviously very low.

Yeah, probably. Went a little overboard making my point I guess... lol But there was an actual quote from Ernie Accorsi shortly after the trade where he said something like that. It was something to the effect of "trading for a QB like Eli doesn't really ever happen and you only get a chance to trade for a QB like him maybe once in a lifetime, so I couldn't pass it up". I just read it in an article (from 2004) yesterday, but of course now I can't find the article anywhere (and I just cleared my browser history this morning...).

I would absolutely LOVE Rick Dudley as team president or even GM. Paul Fenton would also be good though. Both Dudley and Fenton would be amazing. We did try to get Rick Dudley last time though, and he decided to stay in Montreal. They even gave him a raise (and a promotion?) too, because they didn't want him going anywhere. Maybe things have changed in the past few years, who knows. We can hope, right? He does still have a house here IIRC.

Oh wow, I guess he didn't take a dive. It was legit. The replay I saw didn't show niskanin in it. It was the clip they showed on NBC after the game, where they paused it just as Ovi was tapping Kadri on the arm, and then it showed what looked like Kadri taking a ridiculous dive. I stand corrected though. Kadri has definitely taken some dives (or at least 1 that I seen) earlier in this series though, and with the type of player he is, I can see why a lot of people immediately assumed it was a dive.

I agree with much of what you are saying. As far as not having a plan - From most accounts, it seems like Tolbert was brought in to be one of "McDermott's guys". He's been with SM in Carolina for years, and McDermott loves his personality and work ethic. He's one of those guys a new coach brings in too help establish the new culture he's trying to bring with him. It's very common. A single, $1M signing should not prevent most teams from tendering a guy at a certain level. But our cap has been so mismanaged that it probably does here, which seems pretty ridiculous when you think about it, especially for a 7-9 team that hasn't sniffed the playoffs in forever.