transplantbillsfan

C'mon dude... We've barely had Watkins at full strength over the last 2 years. Probably half the games he's even played in he's been hobbled. And Watkins is a complete beast and was often when he was on the field. But he was on the field healthy... well, not much. And Woods missed games and wasn't healthy... and I think he was a bit of a whiny B word too often. And Taylor was throwing to rookie UDFA Walter Powell, lately acquired Brandon Tate, and street FA Justin Hunter along with the oft-injured Marquise Goodwin. Now Jordan Matthews, projected 1st round WR Zay Jones and Anquan Boldin are your top 3 with experienced, more reliable backups...? Sorry, but losing Watkins isn't even remotely the same as losing McCoy, IMO of course Yep

They are going to draft a QB inevitably next year. The question is going to be whether they are so desperate for one that they use all of their draft picks to trade up and get their guy (and remember, it takes two to tango it's not like we can easily get any QB in what's shaping up supposedly to be a great QB class) or if they sit there with the draft picks and let their board play out and take a QB at the point where they see the value. I think those are the two scenarios and it all depends on how Taylor plays this year. even if we sit there and take a QB in the first but we don't have a draft pick until the middle of the first round or later and that is when we take him, I think Taylor is around another year with the regime closely watching the QB position, yet again. And Taylor serves in that case almost as the safer "fallback option" in case it turns into (what's looking like) what's happening in Denver with Paxton Lynch.

It does, but our WR core is still better than last year. It's like we took two steps forward and one step back. We're still ahead of where we were. Yeah, it matters who he's throwing too. That's why we now hopefully have three viable weapons as our top three wide receivers (who can stay healthy hopefully) as opposed to what we had last year.

I think all this is right except the Lombardi trophy part. I think if the team makes the playoffs and wins at least a game, but probably 2, Taylor sticks. I'd like to read it. It would be a solid and substantive post by you

Yeah I'm not denying that, yet the team won more without Sammy on the field than with him. I don't think losing him is the sign we're going 2-14 or even 7-9 again. And whatever our final record is, saying we would have won X number of games more doesn't jive either.

Stepping back for a second to think about Elite WRs, how often are they the catalysts for winning? Jerry Rice is obviously a big YES! Randy Moss? TO? Megatron? Andre Johnson? Larry Fitzgerald? AJ Green? Julio Jones? All these guys were/are Elite talents at the WR position... did any really serve as the catalyst to put the team over the hump? Maybe Elite WRs who demand the ball (through play or words) aren't the best thing for the team, after all

Eh... he missed half the season. And Sammy was clearly hobbled pretty much the whole year last year when he actually played. If Jones, Matthews, and Bolden can stay healthy this year I think or wide receiving corps should be better than last year. It's not like Sammy being on the field ever correlated with winning. The team was 5-3 without him and one of those losses was one of Taylor's 2 best career games.

Exactly! My biggest criticism about this whole thing in the way that it played out is how late everything is happening.

Better to have your answer on the QB and then a WR Who might never be able to stay healthy, anyway We have plenty of draft picks next year to get an elite WR if Taylor proved to be the answer. We have plenty of draft picks to get our guy at QB along with a really good WR if Taylor doesn't prove to be the answer. This is a move that puts all the chips on the table for TT to prove himself without anyone being able to call Sammy the crutch that made him good. It's interesting and scary, but the right move probably given our stockpile of draft picks next year.

I think this is what we are all hoping will happen. Get rid of one elite target but make sure there are multiple really good or good targets. Hope that the QB spreads it around and get it to all of those targets. I think this is a pretty good way to figure out if Taylor can actually spread the ball around to multiple receivers. If Taylor can be a franchise QB, this is the year he answers that question

Oooooohhhh.... the Doublewood is my go-to but my father in law got me the 15 year old for Christmas that was delicious!!!

Rams as an emblem, now? You really are a Troll, aren't you?

Ummm.... we're all Bills fans. Are you saying you're not sticking with the Bills starting QB? You guys are like vultures with this CoT thing. Kinda ridiculous. No one has ever said that Taylor is an Elite QB. Honestly, it might be better than it was even a week ago as a whole. Our starting 3 a week ago was Watkins/Jones/Holmes (?) This week it's Matthews/Jones/Boldin Actually the argument was more a true #1 and a true #2. I think we've still got about that. Maybe we have three #2s instead, but we'll see.

Maybe this is just literally a sink or swim season for Taylor. Maybe McDermott is thinking that Watkins was too injury prone anyway and we could have gotten something for him, but if he was healthy he was going to be too much of a crutch to really evaluate if Taylor could be the long term answer. Now that he's gone, if Taylor plays really well, there aren't going to be too many questions.

Yeah, I pretty much agree with this.

It does. But it's fine. If Taylor plays really well this year, we know he's the guy. If he doesn't, we now clearly have the draft picks to go and draft the guy.

Head-scratching. On the one hand, now it really looks like tanking might be in the cards or back of the minds for OBD. On the other hand, I just can't believe Boldin would have come to Buffalo being sold on a team in rebuild mode. There has to be more to this. Watkins is obviously constantly at risk for an injury. Even last night he came up and I thought he hobbled at one point. Maybe this was just a good move for both parties but it doesn't mean the Bills are trying to tank? Just weird.

Just popped up in my notifications..., Crap! Merge!!!!

Does he look like he could threaten to usurp Glennon to start game #1? Commonsense would be really upset if that's what happens.

Well, it was brief, but I think we saw a plan of Taylor taking a lot of snaps under center and taking 3 and 5 stop drops and getting the ball out of his hands with quick timing routes, much like some of the article and traditional West Coast offenses often do. He might have taken more snaps under center in that quarter than any other game so far in his career. And I actually don't know if that hyperbole or not And he looked pretty good doing it.

Dude looks really good!!! At the very least we have great depth on the DL now I think.

He should definitely be our #2. God, Yates is a dumpster fire! Peterman reminds me of Fitz, though his arm might be weaker than The Beard.

Holy crap... I learned way too much about Boyst in this thread. God I'm an old soul at 36...

I think it's funny that you pro-rate Young's stats from 3 games to 16 games. That's absolutely ridiculous. I've been criticized for pro-rating Taylor's 2015 season from 14 to 16 games and you're going from 3 to 16... I think it's even funnier (and stranger) that Young didn't only play in 3 games in his 5th year... Young was really up and down for his first 4 years in the league and then came in with "spot duty" in his 5th and 6th years. The guy threw 154 passes, less than 1500 yards passing, 10 TDs and 3 INTs and that was him somehow "absolutely prov(ing) himself" after (or are you now saying before? ...that was a typo, right? ... I hope so, because saying anyone proved themselves in less than 100 pass attempts is preposterous) his 6th year? Revisionist history... Two.

Well... that's where I put my bowtie... sooooo...