Logic

We pick 9th. Kyler Murray Quinnen Williams Nick Bosa Clelin Ferrell Josh Allen Dwayne Haskins Rashan Gary Brian Burns TJ Hockenson Greedy Williams DK Metcalf Jonah Willams Jawaan Taylor All of the above guys are, depending on who you ask, ranked as high or higher than Ed Oliver in terms of value. SOMEBODY good is bound to slip to the Bills. Given Oliver's less than prototypical size, it's not unreasonable to think it could be him.

If I was N'Keal Harry, I would've told Kelvin Fisher "Thank you very much for your advice, and I respect your opinion, but I have to do what's right for me and for my family." In other words, get bent.

Like others said previously, the seeding in this thing was messed up. The finals should've been Bills vs Packers.

@BringBackFlutie I mean...

And yet...if Ryan Fitzpatrick had asked you to marry him, you would've said yes. Curious.

We've officially reached the "signing guys for special teams" part of the offseason.

I totally agree with this point. HOWEVER...from a physical talent standpoint, an aggressiveness standpoint, and a "potential to be great" standpoint, the Elway, Favre, Newton comparisons are not entirely off base. I think it goes without saying (or at least it should) that he has a lot of work to do to be mentioned honestly in the same breath as those guys. No one, however, should deny that he has the physical tools to achieve that level of greatness. He is quite literally one of 10 or 12 most talented QBs -- strictly from a physical and athletic standpoint -- to ever lace up his cleats in the NFL.

This. Nailed it.

Fair enough. I think you're probably right. It should be noted, though, for full transparency: You're a Favre hater. I don't know why. He must have peed in your Flutie Flakes or something.

The main thing is that I don't think he'll ever be a Brees or a Brady, slowly matriculating the ball down the field on a regular basis. Even if/when he learns to take the gimmes and checkdowns, I think he'll always be a "No no no.........YES!!!" guy. To some extent, I think we'll always have to live with the extreme highs and the head scratching lows with Allen. I think watching him will be a lot like watching Brett Favre: Amazing plays that only he could make and memorable moments galore, but also a bunch of frustrating interceptions and questionable decisions. Me, personally? I'll take the tradeoff. No risk it, no biscuit.

Interestingly, Bills fans are now in a familiar position watching their QB as they have been in recent years, but we're now on the opposite side of it. Let me explain what I mean: For years we watched the likes of Trent Edwards and Ryan Fitzpatrick get off to hot starts, but then defensive coordinators would just learn to have their defenses squat on all the short and underneath stuff, daring the Bills QBs to beat them deep. The Bills' QBs couldn't do that, so it was game over for the Bills offense. Now we're on the flip side with Allen: defensive coordinators are going to take away the deep stuff, knowing that that's Allen's bread and butter. They'll want to force him to dink and dunk and beat them underneath. He has yet to show that he can do that consistently in the NFL. We already KNOW he can make the long bomb, the "wow" play, the improvisatory "how did he do that?!" play. We just haven't seen him consistently make the routine plays, the gimmes, the 4 yard gains on 1st and 2nd down. THIS is where Allen needs to improve in order to be a complete QB. Of course, I'd rather have the guy that pushes the ball down the field that you have to yell at to check down than the guy who only checks down and you have to yell at him to take chances. We've had enough Checkdown Charlies over the past 20 years in Buffalo. We finally have a gunslinger. He just needs to learn that you never go broke making a profit. And I think he WILL learn it. And the other nice thing about the defenses taking away the deep stuff is that it should open things up for the Bills' ground game considerably -- assuming the o-line can start holding its own. At the end of the day, the most informative comment I've yet heard about who Allen IS as a quarterback comes form Allen himself: When asked in college why he threw a low percentage but successful long bomb TD instead of a pass to the primary target who was running a shorter route on the play, Allen told his coach "Favre says always go for the touchdown". That stuck with me. That's Allen, and I think it always will be, for better or worse.

The way this offensive roster is currently constructed, and with respect to what it seems Daboll wants to do offensively in general....Hockenson would be SUCH a great fit and a huge boost. Brown and Foster keeping safeties deep means there will be a lot of room underneath to operate. Cole Beasley can be one beneficiary of this, yes, but the Bills need a massive target that can attack the seams and find the soft spots in zones. We all HOPE that CFL WR Duke Williams can be that guy for Buffalo, but it's foolish to assume that he will make the roster and be a successful NFL WR. The Bills can't put their eggs in that basket. Hockenson is that guy. Add in his next level blocking and you have a highly valuable offensive weapon for a decade. It can't be overstated how much a player like Hock could help Josh Allen's development, and isn't Allen's development really the single most significant factor in this team's success or failure in the long run?

Sheesh, you sure know how to engage in a mature, civil discussion. ?

It's so interesting how the first few games of a rookie QB's career shape the narrative of how his first year went and what his prospects for success are. Case in point: Last year Sam Darnold came out swinging in his debut primetime game and threw (4?) TDs. He was darn good in his first few games, leading many to talk about how sensational he was. Just like with Wentz, Darnold proceeded to have a bunch of TERRIBLE games in a row. His turnovers far outweighed his TDs. It was clear as day that he was struggling mightily. Like Allen, Darnold came back from injury looking much improved, but it's weird that the public narrative sort of conveniently edited out that huge portion in the middle where he struggled. The opposite thing happened with Allen: He looked pretty bad to the outside observer over the course of his first few games. That was enough to cause most casual fans and most ESPN analyst types to say "he is who we thought he was", "he stinks", "he's a bust", etc...Then he came back from injury and pretty much improved game after game through the end of the season, culminating in a game where he produced 5 TDs. Still, it wasn't enough. The narrative remained that he had a bad rookie season. Narrative, narrative, narrative. Of course, coming out gangbusters and becoming an elite player will shut all of that up, but it IS interesting to note how perception forms and sticks pretty early on.

I've thought about this quite a lot. More than is probably healthy for a person not employed by a football team. Here's what I've decided: The Bills are early enough in their rebuild and lack enough talent at enough different positions across their roster that their main objective in this draft should be to get as many high quality players as possible. Hockenson, to me, is of the absolute highest caliber. He is the only guy still likely to be on the board at 9 that I look at and say "There's a 10 year All-Pro". His talent seems so transcendent to me, and he seems like such a good fit on this team both from a personality standpoint as well as his play on the field and its impact on our young QB, that I'd be happy to draft him at 9 EVEN THOUGH the recent history of first round tight ends is not pretty. Guys like Travic Kelce and Zach Ertz and (formerly) Rob Gronkowski make SUCH HUGE DIFFERENCES for their teams. I view Hockenson as that level of talent. So "'positional value" be damned, I'm all for drafting Hockenson at 9. The NUMBER ONE JOB of this front office right now is to ensure that Josh Allen has every tool he needs to succeed. From both a pass catching and blocking standpoint and bearing in mind the apparently extremely high talent level of the prospect in question, Hockenson seems like he would be a tremendous help to this offense and to Allen. Say yes to Hockenson at 9.

Fine with it. Bills will be drafting a young running back to learn behind McCoy and Gore. Couldn't pick a better duo to have a youngster shadow for a season.

Gee, I guess you're right. I'm SURE you know more about how the defense works and who plays well in it than NFL player Lorenzo Alexander or NFL head coach Sean McDermott. "They've done nothing to take note of"? Again, I guess McDermott making the playoffs in his FIRST season when no previous Bills coach in 18 years could get it done doesn't mean anything to you. That's fine. You're a tough critic. There's one thing that I hope you understand: Your subjective opinion does not represent objective reality. Just because YOU think a certain thing doesn't make it objectively true.

Because of two things he said. First, he had the comment about "if there is truly depth at any position -- let's say defensive line -- then that allows you to push that need down the draft." This is INDEED a deep draft at defensive line, and the Bills have been meeting with more projected mid-round linemen and edge rushers than I thought they would. Second, Beane mentioned that if you consider a position weak in the draft, it'll probably cause you to make sure you sign someone at that position in free agency, so that if you miss out on the top few guys, you're not in a bad position. Here, to me, it seemed like he was talking about offensive linemen and wide receivers. Putting the two things together: if defensive line (and, for that matter, tight end) are both deep positions in this draft, but Beane feels that offensive line and wide receiver are NOT particularly deep (and his signing 5 O-linemen and 3 WRs in FA support this notion), then I can't help but wonder if the plan is to try to grab the best player available at one of those shallow positions (OL or WR) early, knowing that you can still get good DL and TEs later into the draft. It is all completely guess work and inference on my part. I mostly believe them this year when they say they'll take BPA. And I'd even say I still view d-line as the LIKELY first round pick. But today's comments by Beane, for the reasons I mentioned, represented the first time that I seriously considered that they might take a different position instead and wait to get some d-linemen later in the draft, given its depth at those positions.

Hearing Beane talk today at owner's meetings has me thinking for the 1st time that they may NOT pick a defensive lineman in the first round.

If "they" is Beane and McDermott, they have NOT had 20 years. They've had two. Year one, they were in the playoffs ("they backdoor'd their way in, blah blah blah"). How many other Bills coaches made the playoffs in the last 17 years? How many other Bills coaches made the playoffs in their first season? Year two, they fell short of the playoffs, but had the #2 defense in the league and identified a franchise QB. Talk all you want about how bad you think Star was, but teams with as big a liability as you're describing Star to be along the defensive line typically don't perform as well as the Bills defense did. Oh, and about Star's performance last year? Let's hear from tenured NFL veteran and Pro Bowler Lorenzo Alexander on the issue: “Obviously he (doesn’t play) a sexy position, but he allows other people around him to make plays,” Alexander said. “I’ve definitely been able to have a pretty good year this year. A lot of it is contributed to what he’s been able to do as far as keeping guys off me, allowing me to run free. “In the pass rush, people can’t step up. On first or second down I know a couple of guys that have gotten sacks throughout the year just because Star has gotten that great push. He’s earned every bit of what he’s got with that five-year deal.” Beane and McDermott are not batting 1.00. No one is. But in my opinion, they're doing a hell of a job.

Speaking of "hyperbolic nonsense", how about claiming "0-9" when Star Lotulelei was a key contributor to the Bills' number 2 defense, earning the praise of his coaches and teammates, and Trent Murphy earned a starting role and his only downfall was a struggle to stay healthy, and Chris Ivory was a key backup that contributed mightily to two Bills wins? We see what we want to see, BADOL.

Ultimately, I've concluded that there is NO Bills free agency approach that will please some Bills fans. They didn't spend at all? "They're asleep at the wheel! Fire Beane!" They spent big on premium players? "They're overpaying! You win through the draft! Fire Beane!" They handed out short, modest contracts to role players and bargain free agents? "They're shopping in the bargain aisle! They have no eye for talent! Fire Beane!" You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. For what it's worth, even though no one asked me, I think the approach this front office takes to free agency is perfect. Identify 1-2 premium players each year and hand out big contracts to just those players. The rest of the way, fill holes with short term, low risk bargain or market level deals. Continue to build through the draft. Stockpile the majority of your cap allotment to re-sign your OWN draftees. Perfect.

I retweeted this to Sal, Buscaglia, Chris Brown, and the official Bills Twitter account. Hopefully ONE of them retweets it themselves, so that it gets better publicity. Also: Haha Flutie, you have Twitter now!

This signing makes all sorts of sense. Already know he fits in with the locker room culture. Already know he can be highly productive in this scheme, even to the level of being a quality starter at CB2. Creates strong competition for CB2 role between Wallace, Johnson, and Gaines. Wallace will have to EARN his starting spot. Assuming White, Wallace, Taron Johnson are starting trio, this move (along with the Kevin Johnson signing) creates EXCELLENT depth in the secondary. Both Johnson and Gaines have been high level starters in this league, they just struggle to stay healthy. The ONLY negative I can think of with this signing and the Kevin Johnson signing is that both guys have struggled to stay healthy. Both deals, though, are only for one year and are cheap, and thus come with little risk whatsoever. Love, love, love it.

I certainly understand (but do not entirely share) your viewpoint. Jerry was DEFINITELY the majority of what was interesting/excellent about the Grateful Dead. I still enjoy gathering with the tribe and getting my boogie on, and I love me some Bobby Weir.