Logic

Yeah. Low man wins, and with his uncommon height for the position, he's almost never the low man. If he can improve his block shedding and tackling, he'll be the total package.

They didn't draft him to be a run stuffing MLB. They drafted him to be a MLB in the year 2019 and beyond, where pass defense is the name of the game. And as the stats said, he defended 12 passes, had 2 INTs and 2 Sacks. He negatively affected the opponent's passing game quite well. The run defense instincts should improve with time and experience. Anyone expecting him to move outside (where Milano is already starting and playing well) is going to be disappointed.

The fact that he did all of this as a 20-year-old who never before played the position is just astonishing. And aside from personal stats, he was the "quarterback" of the 2nd ranked defense and 1st ranked pass defense in the NFL. That's huge. I know some fans felt he disappointed this year, but I don't think that at all, not even a little bit. Crazy what he did at such a young age. Future is extremely bright.

I may be in the minority, but I believe Foster has the potential to be a quality #1 receiver in this league. He's not just running go routes. He's running a pretty full route tree and producing week after week. Between the emergence of Foster, Zay Jones, and McKenzie, WR is much less of a pressing need in the offseason. Still a need, sure, but probably firmly below OL and TE now.

Fully agree. Take a corner every year. EVERY YEAR. No matter what. But boy, it sure is nice to go into the offseason with one less PRESSING need. Lord knows there's lots of work to do on offense without having to worry about finding a bona fide #2 corner.

I think the Bills are a #1 receiver away from having a legitimate receiving corps. Really? Yes, really. If you can either draft or trade for a #1 caliber guy, it will allow Foster to move to the #2 spot, of which he appears more than capable. He's your speed option that takes the top off the defense. Zay Jones moves to his most natural slot position. McKenzie is the 4th receiver/gadget player. Add in a depth option to play the 5th spot and you're off and running. The trickle down effect of having a true #1 can't be overstated, and can be seen by looking at Dak Prescott before and after the arrival of Amari Cooper. Personally, I'd love to see them trade for AJ Green and then draft a couple youngsters in the 3rd-5th rounds. Overall, the emergence of Foster, Jones, and McKenzie as the year progressed made WR less of a dire need than it once seemed. It's still a need, to be sure, but I'd rank offensive line and tight end above the WR position at this point in terms of need.

There is one thing that I hope by now everyone realizes: Never, ever question Sean McDermott on his taste in defensive backs. The man knows how to identify and coach talent at that position. Hyde and Poyer are the best examples. Afterthoughts in free agency -- especially Poyer -- that no one really had high expectations for. Now they're an excellent tandem in their prime. White, Johnson, Wallace. Even Ryan Lewis has been serviceable in his time on the field. Vontae Davis and Philip Gaines were swings and misses, to be sure, but overall, I have not a single fear with regard to the quality of our secondary in the years to come.

I believe he has locked up our number 2 corner spot for the long term. Let's not forget that he played extremely well as a ROOKIE, and I even saw some metrics where he was playing as well as or better than Tre'Davious White at times. With White, Wallace, and Johnson in the slot, and Micah and Jordan at safety, our secondary has the makings of a dominant unit for years to come.

Oh my God is it a relief to finally have a coaching staff that calls QB sneaks on 3rd and short. After watching Brady do this for YEARS and watching the Bills NEVER do it, despite at times employing large QBs like EJ Manual or mobile QBs like Tyrod, I had just about pulled out every last hair on my head. Go figure, it takes a former Patriots OC to finally get the Bills making this obvious call at a consistent rate. And yes, Allen's physical acumen has a lot to do with the success of this tactic. But having an OC who's willing to call it to begin with has added years to my life.

Josh Allen won't be there at 9. But if there's any other defensive player that they really love at 9, I'm fine with them taking him. It's not as if our defense is the '85 Bears. If you can upgrade the defense and you don't feel there's a comparably talented offensive player available, take the defensive guy. BPA. BPA. BPA.

Great accolade for Josh to end the season. As for Geoff Schwartz: Yes, it's irritating how stubbornly he is sticking to his "Allen stinks" narrative. It's not HALF as annoying as the desperation and persistence of Bills fans in trying to force every analyst in the world to love Allen. So what, they don't like him! Who cares? Let him prove them all wrong with his play in the coming years. Why is it so important to Bills fans that everyone love the kid? The insecurity and Napolean complex of Bills fans is just comically off the charts most of the time.

I will admit to buying into all the anti-Allen hype. I was a huge Mayfield guy. I was also convinced the Bills liked Darnold and would find a way to get up high enough to take him. Once Mayfield and Darnold were off the board, it simplified things. The Bills realistically could only choose between the Joshes (assuming they didn't like Lamar Jackson, of which I was pretty confident). So when Roger Goodell said "The Buffalo Bills select Josh...." , time stopped. That half second felt like a millenium. I so badly wanted the next word to be "Rosen". I just KNEW Allen would be a bust. JP Losman/EJ Manuel part three. I. WAS. WRONG. I'm not saying this guy's gonna be a Hall of Famer or anything. But boy oh boy, did I underestimate his talent. He has an absolutely TRANSCENDENT level of talent. He often appears to be the best and most athletic player on the field from either team. He sometimes seems to be a one-man offense. And this is AS A ROOKIE. He has less than 16 games under his belt in the NFL, and he's already taking over football games at times. Aside from his obvious physical talents (he may be the most physically talented QB to ever step foot on an NFL field, and that's not an exaggeration), he has shown heart, infectious enthusiasm, obvious leadership skills, swagger, and guts. He is the PERFECT quarterback for the city of Buffalo, he is a leader of men, and as several analysts have said, he's "Must-see TV". He's also really easy to root for due to his personality, humility, and background story -- I mean...throwing rocks into a garbage bin on a farm in the middle of nowhere? Come on, man! So yeah, my opinion has changed. I was wrong wrong wrong, and crow never tasted so good!

That guy's not a beat reporter. He's just some bored dude in his basement trying to turn wishful thinking into reality. Fake News.

Far, far too many people in this thread are ignoring that the article says he's a candidate for the Miami HURRICANES, not Dolphins. How did this thread make 5 pages?!

Eric "sleeping with" Bienemy. Nice.

I'm fine with the firing of Castillo. It shows that McDermott is serious about fixing the offensive line. That being said, I believe the Bills were a top 5 rushing team last season, and then they lost Eric Wood and Richie Incognito in the same offseason and did basically nothing to replace them. I'm not exactly sure what offensive line coach would be able to get quality production out of Jordan Mills and Russell Bodine, but whatever. What's done is done. Like everyone else, I'm hoping Crossman is next. Oh, and I also want to say that I find it encouraging that after each of the past two seasons, McDermott has fired a coach. It shows he's not too stubborn, complacent, or set in his ways to change when change is needed. That's a really good thing. Now he just needs to pick some superior replacements so that there aren't MORE firings after NEXT season!

The only thing I'll say in response is that if I'm guilty of looking at the Bills' tenure under Beane and McDermott with overly rose-colored glasses -- and I may be -- then many of Beane's critics are just as guilty of a lack of objectivity, cherry-picking only his bad moves and not giving him credit for his good moves. The truth is probably that BOTH sides are presenting an incomplete picture. Beane has made good moves and bad moves. He's not flawless, but he's also not bad at his job and CERTAINLY doesn't deserve the criticism that he gets from some corner of Bills nation. Considering his job on the whole so far, I'd give him a positive grade, but I also understand those who give him a negative grade -- I understand them TO A POINT, anyway. In any case, I think we can all agree that this coming offseason will tell us a lot about how good Beane is or isn't as a general manager. 2018 was also very instructive in that regard, and his identifying and selection of what appear to be franchise quarterbacks for the offense and defense are what lead to my giving him an overall positive grade. Again, as long as people are objective in their analysis, I welcome contrary opinions.

I don't want a 30 -year-old malcontent whose attitude is so bad the he got benched for a critical end-of-season game. So my answer is...nothing.

I agree with the OP. Luckily, so does Brandon Beane, based on his comments at the end-of-year presser. For fans that want him to go out and spend like a drunken sailor at port, I think there will be disappointment. He's never going to be a Doug Whaley when it comes to free agency. Nor should he be. Like he said, that would put the Bills right back in the same place they were before he arrived. But I do think the Bills will add some quality players. Think about this: In their cap-constrained 2017 and 2018 offseasons, the Bills still added Jordan Poyer, Micah Hyde, Trent Murphy, Star Lotulelei, Chris Ivory, Patrick DiMarco, and Stephen Hauschka. The first four guys helped make the Bills the 2nd ranked defense in the NFL in 2018. The two offensive guys are only role players, yes, but they have contributed as role players. The last guy has won a few games for the Bills singlehandedly. And these were their acquisitions when they had almost no cap space. So I DO expect to see some quality pieces added in free agency...it just won't be the marquee name, instant-transformation guys that many want. Beane will instead use his money to lock up guys like Dawkins, Zay, Milano, White, etc. This will be the most exciting and interesting Bills offseason in quite some time. That's weird, I seem to recall the Bills having the 2nd ranked defense in the entire NFL in 2018. Star taking on double team blocks all year absolutely contributed to that. Murphy, though he struggled with injury, also helped the defense. He was arguably the second best DE on the Bills roster. And even though it was under Whaley's watch officially, McDermott was "buying the groceries" when the team signed Poyer and Hyde. All they've done is become one of the top five best starting safety duos in the NFL. Yes, he's had some misses. He's also been incredibly constrained by the Bills' poor cap situation and status as an undesirable destination. Let's see what he's able to do with a bunch of cap space before we say he "sucks" at signing free agents, eh?

I think the point you bring up about Shady not getting the ball in space is a valid and interesting one. Yes, the offensive line was poor and that was a huge factor in his not being successful. Even so, I couldn't help but feel that the Bills could've done more this season to get him some opportunities in space. They DID split him out wide a fair amount, they DID throw him screens (which usually got blown up pretty quickly), but still...it feels like more could have been done. In any event, if it's true that the Bills have him in their plans for 2019, and if they get some upgrades on the offensive line, I know this: Shady said he'll have a huge chip on his shoulder next year, wanting to prove that he still "is who he is". Me personally? I won't be betting against a motivated LeSean McCoy. For what it's worth, I agree with Beane and McDermott -- McCoy's not done, and he hasn't lost a step. He just needs some help. As for Allen: Any time your quarterback accounts for five touchdowns, it's obviously a good day. There have been several games this year where Allen just looks like the best athlete and the best player on the field from EITHER TEAM. Put simply, he has transcendent talent. He is, at times, almost a one-man offense, or at least as close to that as a person can be in a team game like football. In fairness, he also had some HORRIFIC throws yesterday. His routinely throwing behind his receivers on slants was particularly ugly. Nevertheless, he seems to have the talent to overcome those ugly plays. His GOOD plays seem to be good enough and explosive enough to overcome his bad plays. He may NEVER have upper echelon completion percentage or efficiency for the position, but I'd be willing to bet he will consistently have upper echelon playmaking and explosiveness. Here's my favorite juicy morsel from 2018: Did you know that Josh Allen was second IN THE ENTIRE NFL in "AYTS". AYTS is "Air yardage to the sticks". This metric measures how often a player is throwing past the first down marker rather than throwing short of it and depending on his receivers to make yards after the catch. Second in the entire NFL! It makes me think back to when a coach chastised him in college for throwing a long touchdown when the play actually called for him to throw a shorter ball. The short-route receiver was the first progression. Allen skipped him and threw the long TD instead, and the coach asked him why. What did Allen say? "Favre says always go for the touchdown". That's allen in a nutshell. He needs to learn to take the checkdown when it's there and to continue to be smart with the football, but I'd rather that he have to learn THAT than have to learn to take risks. When it comes to guts in quarterbacking, I'll use Mel Brooks' quote: "Or you got it or you ain't!". Allen's got it. He's a guy the Bills can win with, and determining that is what 2018 was really about. One more thing. I thought a lot this season about a post you made once where you said this: basically, in football, you need a quarterback, a stud defender or two, and the rest is fill-in-the-blanks. Well, with Allen, Edmunds, Milano, and White on board (not to mention quality coaching), I think the Bills have the most important ingredients for success already. The 2019 offseason is fill-in-the-blanks time, and then they should be off and running. My 8-ball, I should note, is wrong a lot. But right now, for 2019, it's telling me "Outlook good".

If the only thing that matters are wins, then his playoff season in year 1 should buy him a little extra credit. Hell, getting this team to six wins with THIS ROSTER should get him some extra credit, as well. I do agree he needs to start piling wins next year, but "hot seat" time if he doesn't? Tough crowd.

It IS true in some instances that 1st round rookie offensive linemen make teams noticeably better. Quenton Nelson and Ryan Kelly (both 1st round o-linemen) upgraded the Colts o-line massively and helped keep Luck upright and pave the way to the playoffs. Zack Martin upgraded the Cowboys line tremendously. Playoffs. If you want to limit it to offensive tackles only, Taylor Lewan and Jack Conklin for Tennessee. Playoffs. Eric Fisher for the Chiefs. Etc, etc. I'm fine with trading down and accumulating more picks if that's what they want to do. But pretending that it's not possible to significantly upgrade your offensive line by drafting a first round linemen is silly.

You must have missed out putrid run game and all the times Allen was running for his life this year. #17 won't have time to get the ball TO the new targets if he doesn't get some legitimate protection up front. Nor will our run game ever exit the doldrums of the NFL. Playmakers are needed, yes. But I would say that simply upgrading the offensive line -- even if the Bills kept Foster, Zay, and McKenzie as their top three receivers -- would provide a massive upgrade to our offense and improve the effectiveness of both Allen and McCoy. OL > skill players all day. If you really want to play the "value draft picks" game, let's look at the recent success rate of first round receivers. Corey Davis John Ross Corey Coleman Will Fuller Josh Doctson Laquon Treadwell Kevin White Devante Parker Philip Dorsett Should I keep going? While first round LTs haven't been sure things recently either, the hit rate at that position is superior to the recent hit rate at WR.

I would reply to this, but anyone that seriously feels this way knows so little about football and team-building that it's really not worth the time. Even the sentence I just typed was too much work.