Greywolf

What are her day-to-day responsibilities? Managing two pro teams requires a lot more knowledge than just football/hockey smarts, and I thought I read that Terry was taking over sports operations. Frankly, I have no reason to doubt that Kim Pegula is not up to the task, especially considering her predecessors weren't exactly setting the world on fire.

Some guys always think they're untouchable.

Arguing the Senior Bowl practices as proof of future greatness is like praising the NBA as a defensive league after watching the All-Star game.

No offense, but clips of practices at the Senior Bowl are about 100th on the list of reasons why you'd choose any player in the draft, not just Allen. Sure, he can come up with great throws and scrambles after contact. But he does not have the fundamentals to play early in the NFL, which may be exactly what he's forced to do if AJ doesn't work out. Serious accuracy issues are going to be exploited in a big way by NFL defenses that are light years better than anything he saw in college. I would like to see Allen succeed, but that's going to take a really good QB coach, lots of time in development (a couple years at least), and playing behind a good offensive line with a good group of WRs. Even if all that turns out perfectly for him, it's going to take a couple years with Allen under center before anyone can call him a quality starter. That's not a knock against Allen--almost all QBs coming out of college are in that boat. But AJ better be the answer for the next year or two because putting Allen in early will resemble the Bills throwing EJ to the wolves. That's not fair to anyone, especially Allen.

Who's saying he's the worst pick of the draft? No one. Almost all of the critics of the Allen pick I've seen on this board have repeatedly explained their factual grounds for not liking the pic. Accuracy, weaker conference competition than his QB peers, mediocre completion rate, another QB project, Rosen would have been a better pick, etc. It's all there to be read in a hundred posts. I don't recall people characterizing the Allen pick as the worst pick.

If people expressing an opinion that's different from yours ruins the fun, then a fan board is going to be a tough place to be. And, if you've been around Bills' fan boards going back the past couple decades, you know very well that the Bills have made so many ridiculous mistakes that it's quite reasonable to take issue with their draft decisions. Remember the JP Losman/Trent Edwards years? Multiple seasons lost to failure because the franchise wouldn't admit they'd gotten it completely wrong. There are plenty of other examples of a tradition of ineptitude in Buffalo. If fans don't drink the Kool Aid like you want them to, it's because we've got about a quarter century of bad FO decisions to look back on. That's not stoning the Bills, that's just acknowledging reality. Questioning the FO decision to draft Allen is not the same as refusing to support him now that he is a Bill. I think almost everyone criticising the Allen pick is focusing on the draft strategy and the other options available, not saying they hope Allen fails. I would bet that almost every poster who has criticized the selection still strongly hopes Allen will be a success.

I wish people wouldn't respond to others' thoughts on these subjects with versions of "so, you think you know more than pro scouts and coaches?" C'mon, we all know that none of us are pros. This is just a fan forum and folks like to give their thoughts on Bills-related issues the same way we do over beers with friends. We don't have to be pro scouts to have some fun.

My opinion isn't based on anything off the field. Allen is a very inaccurate passer. Mediocre completion rate. Overthrows open receivers under pressure. Underthrows open receivers under pressure. Drafted too high and put into a position where, if AJ doesn't perform, Allen may be forced onto the field well before he's ready (just like another recent project who was ruined this way) behind a shaky O-line and with not a super receiver corps. I'm rooting for the guy because I don't want anyone to fail, but I have strong doubts. I hope the Bills prove me wrong. Any confidence I have is due to my thinking that McDermott and Beane are much sharper judges of talent than their predecessors.

I think this is potentially another EJ situation. Allen is an inaccurate passer with a mediocre completion rate. He waaaay overthrows and underthrows open receivers when he's under pressure. He has no one to sit behind for a year or two to learn the game and improve his skills, and if AJ doesn't come through for us, the Bills will throw Allen to the wolves behind a rickety O-line and mostly mediocre receivers. I will be surprised if Allen turns out to be a franchise QB. I think the upside is limited to a "hopefully he won't throw the game away" QB. I am definitely keeping my fingers crossed that the Bills show I'm wrong.

Solid D on the Allen pick. Another tall QB who overthrows and underthrows open receivers. Not what we need after years of EJ. Solid A on Edmunds. He will be a great player. But, I'm super disappointed in the Allen pick. He has bust potential written all over him. He's not sitting behind a good QB learning for a year or two and the temptation is going to be to force him onto the field before he's ready if McCarron doesn't pan out, pretty much exactly how the Bills ruined EJ.

Is Kiper ever right?

It's pretty clear tonight that it will probably be a few games into the regular season before the Bills shake off the mess of Rex's schemes, but the team will be better this year.

He was handled wrong by Buffalo right from the start, but the bottom line is that EJ is simply not an NFL starter.

I'd like to see really professional coaching and management. No media circus. Even if it turns out to be another no-playoff season, let it be a season of growth and stability that builds a foundation for Bills fans to expect an upward trajectory the next few years. Enough of this hovering around .500 permanently with all kinds of controversy.

I think the OC needs to redesign the offense to clear routes over the middle and then Taylor has to commit to getting the ball in there throughout the game. I'm not sure the offense we've had the past couple seasons gave the QB a fair chance to exploit the middle routes like other teams do. This year will tell.

I wouldn't. TT was hamstrung by the Bills' run-first offense that did not clear middle routes very well. Let's see what a new system that's not so easy to defense will do for TT. He did pretty darn well in a bad offense last year while also missing the #1 WR for half the season and being benched for no valid reason by Whaley the last game.

I don't have much faith in the Bills organization. The front office is a mess. The Pegulas just don't know much about pro sports operations, and I don't think Buffalo is an attractive opportunity for the top management guys in the league. Hoping for the best, expecting the usual.

A #10 pick must start and must contribute, unless it's a QB. If the Bills went with WR at 10, I would expect whoever they drafted to play a significant role every game. Since the Bills don't have any clarity beyond Watkins at this point and have potentially the worst receiver corps in the league, they can't afford a miss in the first round.

I'm a little disappointed. Taylor is going to need all the help he can get at WR this year after being saddled with journeymen and an injured Watkins last year. He seemed to have developed a rapport with Hunter and I was looking forward to seeing what they could do together this year.

The past few years I've gotten good at not allowing myself to become invested in this team until they prove they're more than paper tigers. Make the playoffs and then I'll allow myself to develop expectations beyond .500 football.

Yep. He and Taylor worked well together and he can be an impact player.

When has tanking a season ever helped a major professional sports team become a perennial winner? Tanking may moderately improve draft position for the Bills, and what does that get us? The same FO guys who have zero ability to draft a QB get to roll the dice on a QB that there's no guarantee at all will turn into a franchise QB no matter how good a college player he is. And what does tanking cost the Bills? Current stars want to leave. Top talent around the league don't want to come to Buffalo as free agents. Quality assistant coaches flee to serious franchises. Fans endure another season of failure and lose even more interest in the team. Tanking is simply a terrible idea where the disadvantages far outweigh the small and unpredictable benefits.

I really don't think Taylor is the reason the Bills didn't make the playoffs. He and Lynn won together. Hell, if Whaley hadn't benched Taylor for the Jets game, that would have probably been another win. There were at least 5 games that the defense lost last season. If the Bills had basically not forfeited the last game of the season by benching Taylor and the defense had won 3 of the 5 games it lost, everyone would be talking a much different and more positive story about Taylor. Doug Whaley is the real problem within the Bills. As long as Whaley is GM, I doubt the Bills will do anything except maybe squeak in as a wild card one time. They're certainly not going to build a consistently competitive team under Whaley.

Hauschka is a small improvement over Carpenter. Increased reliability on FGs, problematic on extra points. Let's see how he does in our stadium when the wind is blowing.

I think Gilmore's loss is very significant. He's going to have some very good years for the Pats, and once again we have to live with Belichick being a better talent evaluator than the Bills entire FO. Woods? I like the guy. I like his attitude. Talent? Eh, middle of the road among #2s. He wasn't an impact player and likely never would be in the Bills' scheme--which is not Woods fault. Of the many holes on this roster, his will be one of the easiest to fill. That said, I wish him well. Williams is a loss, but he's just another of those sad NFL stories where talent runs second to a lack of durability. I doubt he will ever play a full season for anyone.