Ayjent

Tyrod is a decent QB and we’d be thrilled with Josh Allen if he could be as effective this year or whenever he starts. Tyrod isn’t going to win an air duel or throw it all over the field, but he could keep drives alive, limit turnovers and make some great plays with his ability to extend plays. Sure he’s not top tier or the prototype QB, but he is a good player that you can win with. The only reason for controversy is a coach that lets there be one, but when you’ve got a known commodity that is a good player and you get rid of him to put your hopes in a raw prospect you’re making a very risky decision. If I’m a coach I want Tyrod and I want to see the rookie pushing and performing so well that he can’t be denied. I don’t want a clown show of inexperience and two guys that haven’t proven anything good in an NFL game.

Well journalist see their jobs and the organizations they work for as an important function in providing information to society. So bad mouthing an employer is a little different in the circumstance where a journalist thinks the organization isn’t fulfilling its duty as well as it should and letting the public know is part of that function. But..let’s be real sports writing and reporting is stretching all of the above a bit much. We’re not talking about Watergate Journalism and it’s a lot closer to entertainment weekly.

Whatever man. Just because you work for someone doesn’t mean You're not entitled to an opinion or have to work under those conditions. He takes his work as a profession it appears and sees his responsibility in a lot bigger view than employee and employer. I don’t particularly like his columns because they are a tad thin in my opinion. But I respect his view on what he did and why. Don’t do things in life if you have options, even if it makes you uncomfortable - do what you believe in and want and you’ll be more satisfied in life, even if the money isn’t great.

Capable, but flawed starter jettisoned and replaced with a 1st round pick and questionable group of QBs. That’s the parallel - it’s pretty simple and it’s a dicey way to go. The dead cap money and contract situation for Tyrod wasn’t a bad deal and a 3rd rounder is hardly worth throwing your team into possibly the ugliest QB depth chart in the NFL. Look Beane hasn’t proven anything yet, but the total gutting of the team sure shows he has a ton of confidence in himself to remake this team. It’s really risky and it may hurt these team for a long time if he botches it.

I don't have an issue with the move for the QB other than how they put themselves in that position - it might not have been the pick I wanted, but it was what you have to do to get a QB in the draft, especially when you don't have a good one. They put themselves in that pickle of being desperate when they shipped out their starter - deja vu 2013. I just don't understand why they did that and didn't try to do a better job up front to protect that investment.

Still not sure how they are going to address the holes without getting into the same issues they just purged themselves of. They already sunk a good amount of money into Star and I'm not sure that is an upgrade at the position. The draft picks take time to develop and the FAs are overpriced cap eaters - so they need to better than average with the draft picks for this to work. Lots of hubris in the way they gutted the team - lets see if they can follow through. I'm skeptical about it that's all. I also think that people thought that they would address a lot of holes this year with all of the picks - let's see what they do next year. It's not like this team was in a terrible place when Beane and McDermott took over - it had cap issues with big contracts, but it wasn't barren of talent and there was a decent core of players. Last year was a testament to that - because the remaining players that weren't shipped off were the main contributors of the team. Now there are even less of those guys and you'd be hard pressed to say they've improved the talent or even back filled a lot of it with stellar picks or marquee FAs. Having all of that cap room - how do you see them spending it?

I'm saying that they shouldn't have done both. The move for the QB I understand. The move for Edmunds I don't - first he is really young and there were glaring defects in his game at VT - it's not like he was wrecking opposing teams offense on the regular. Second, he is a combine workout warrior at this point - looks the physical part, with a ton of upside (not realized yet) - but as you can see his athleticism is his crutch and he needs to be much better at diagnosing the action after the snap. Third, the investment in the QB makes a lot less sense when you don't address glaring needs on the line that you could have and how is he supposed to develop with poor protection. We are not talking about low tier draft picks that they gave up, we are talking about picks that commonly result in good quality starting players, especially for interior linemen. My point is that everyone wants to say rebuilding, but the deficiencies on the OL could have been addressed, but they thought having a 20 yr old MLB thrust into a starting role with basically no competition was a better choice. Hey maybe Edmunds ends up being a perennial all pro, and I hope he does. But this is an offense driven league and they only thing that's happened to the Offense since McDermott has been hired is that it has progressive gotten worse - they have hope that Allen will be better than Tyrod, but as of right now that is not the case. The WR position outside of Benjamin is a joke. McCoy is getting older. The OL is a mess. TE is probably the only position that they are marginally improved at with better depth. Are you saying that Beane couldn't have done a better job on the Offensive side of the ball this offseason? Pegula run teams have a good track record with setting themselves up with young unproven talent, good draft picks and money, right? This isn't the NBA where you make a run on good players in FA. You have to keep a solid core of talent as much as possible, because it takes a lot of luck and effort to rebuild an NFL team from the ground up. If the Bills had a lot of really good young guys coming out of their rookie contracts the cap room would be great, but they really don't have that issue unless they want to keep Benjamin. So what will they do go crazy in FA where teams always overpay for players and put themselves back in to the same predicament they just got out of? How have the FA signings gone so far under Beane - who is a steal? Poyer and Hyde were good pickups but those happened before Beane and the rest are highly questionable outside of finding Murphy.

To me there is a huge inconsistency in the plan getting a QB without addressing the OL at the same time or before. What's the plan with the new QB with a crap OL? How is that supposed to work? I'm not saying that they shouldn't have got their QB, but addressing the OL without moving up for Edmunds would have been possible and wiser. Edmunds and Allen have to pan out for Beane to look like he knows what he is doing because he spent a ton of draft assets on both and jettisoned a starting QB and starting level LT to get part of the ransom used for Edmunds and Allen. They also knew that Incognito and Wood were not going to be part of the plan and they had a huge hole there at the time of the draft - at least get one interior lineman in the first 3 rounds of the draft. To me those are self-inflicted wounds that don't build a foundation - they just replaced proven talent for unproven talent and used their stock of picks to acquire fewer players than they could have. Sure they coveted these players, but as everyone acknowledges you never know with draft picks and having more picks means more chances to hit on a good one. The Bills drafted what they anticipate to be franchise players, but they aren't putting them in a good situation to succeed off the bat - a bad OL and thrusting a 20 yr old into the starting MLB role with a DL that gets about as much pressure as Patriots footballs.

Ah...the holy trinity

Playing Nate against the Chargers was not a spark and what lead up to it was due to really bad interior line play, bad blocking schemes, bad playcalling, and the QB play was affected by that to a large degree. Nate was a guy that was more of a rhythm thrower that got the ball out quicker in the coaches minds I suspect. My guess was that it was the impetus behind the choice both last year and this year - the constant being that Peterman is better at getting the ball out quicker and that creates less issues than QBs that hold the ball a bit longer. Make no mistake that Peterman's best asset in both circumstances is that he is trying to mask a major deficiency and one that the team has really not addressed adequately at the player or coaching level. Josh Allen will see the field soon for one reason or another related to the deficiencies on the OL - you can bank on it.

Let's just put it this way. I doubt the players as individuals wanted to go out there and look bad when they are trying to make the team or win a starting position. And I doubt the coaches wanted the QBs getting hit hard because of bad blocking and missed assignments. Those things happened. Regardless of the outcome of the games or the amount of game planning going into the game no coach wants to see individuals on their team losing match-ups and missing assignments. This team is a bit thin on talent, but coaching matters a lot in the NFL. I'm just not sure the coaching will make up for the lack of talent on the OL (1. they don't have much talent and 2. the coaching is questionable) and I'm also concerned about the DL/LBs as well. Going to be a tough watch some Sundays when they are just overmatched on the lines.

You may be able to find the stats somewhere, but my guess is that the WR has one of the highest bust rates among 1st round picks. There are a ton of factors that go into it, but teams really focus on combine athleticism and catching radius when it comes to that position rather than more intangible things like blocking, situational awareness (knowing the defenses as well as the QB and being on the same page with the QB), and route running. Sure they get an idea at the combine about route running, but teams are really bad at assessing the position league wide. Some of the busting has to do with poor player development and bad fits as well - the same is even more true for QBs. In the latter example that is more on the team and there is a possibility for a career revival with a change of scenery - that's why you can't always write off players who bust.

To those who think he is like Foster...nope. I didn’t think he was a first rounder when he got drafted a few years back, but he had a good last year in college and performed pretty well during his college career, unlike Foster. He’s the type of guy that could do well, but isn’t going to be anything more than a Wr3 or wr4. Can’t hurt to add some talent to the roster, but WR doesn’t mean much when you have no OL to provide consistent protection.

No dispute about that from me. Unfortunately we always seem to have the pendulum swing too far in the other direction when the team makes changes. I think we may see the same thing unfolding again - they have gutted this team too much to have any consistency and now they better be damn good at talent evaluation or this team isn’t going anywhere. You can cut and replace with many positions, but dropping your talent level at QB and OL will hurt you bad for a long time unless you hit on your replacements and that is where many GMs and FOs have tried this route and failed because they couldn’t get it all to work out with the right pieces at the same time. Odds are not in their favor, but maybe they got it right. I just have a hard time seeing how going with guys that have less than 10 starts combined is better than keeping around a QB that may not be great, but provides stability and continuity to the most important position in the sport. I said the same thing with Fitz and it’s not because I particularly thought he or Tyrod were great (Tyrod is better btw), but they are guys that can play decent QB and it’s better to keep them until you know you can bench them for the better option you’ve added to the roster. It signals to the team that you are keeping the path while trying to improve. When you make the playoffs and then hit reset at QB with the only returning QB being a 5th round draft pick from the year before with one of the worst halves of QB play in NFL history and having full knowledge of the losses on the OL that would plague you if not adequately addressed (but still ignored) - what exactly is the expectation? It’s like saying hey we know this looks bad, but we’re really awesome at this, just trust us. Some are willing to trust and some are skeptical. Let’s put it this way - I’ll trust someone who shows me they know what they are doing and I’m not willing to trust this process quite yet.

Yes this was what was wrong with Whaley - he wasn't good either. But there was a talented enough team to win and make the playoffs, just not a talented enough HC or Defensive Coaching Staff. He was pretty good with scouting pros on other teams, just not very good with draft prospects and was in some weird twilight zone position with seemingly limited power (and probably rightfully so). The Offensive unit that was put together under Rex was actually surprisingly effective and not too bad - the problem was that the Defense went from good to crap with bad schemes and bad coaching. But I agree the team was not built to sustain in the long term and eventually this day would come - although I really have to disagree with getting rid of a guy like Tyrod until you have something better for sure. Tyrod is a starter level QB in the NFL and you don't need to run him out of town to get a better guy - you just have to get other guys on the roster that prove that they are better and your worst case scenario at QB is a guy that can play mobile, game manager as a baseline. Now both sides of the ball look shaky cakes on the lines and that's not a good recipe for winning in the NFL. .

Coaching is a huge deal on the OL because it is about playing as a unit and knowing each others assignments, strengths and weaknesses. What we are seeing is the anchor that held this OL together retired (Wood) and now they are relying more heavily on the coaching and trying to find their way as a unit. Problem is that I don't think they have a good enough coach to make up for the lack of talent and leadership to bridge the gap. I think you saw the starting lineup yesterday and they will give them a game or two before they change it up. There is no way that they can put Allen behind that line to start his career if they want to bring along with confidence. The game is faster already, add guys coming from all angles with no time in the pocket and it's going to be frantic. You could see the Bills giving up over 100 sacks easily with Allen back there (if he could withstand the beating) - not that he has been bad, but he's a rookie that needs a little more time in the pocket and there is no question that someone trying to correct some deficiencies in his footwork will regress if not given some stability where he can actually set his feet.

I agree. It's not all bad, just like Whaley wasn't all bad - but there are highly questionable moves that will bear out during the next few seasons. I think the team made a huge mistake trading Taylor away (who could actually still make things happen with the toilet paper line in front of him) - he was professional in his approach to preparation and leadership, he could have been a good mentor and yes you want him to try to beat out the other (competition is good at QB - if Allen or Peterman could supplant Tyrod then so be it). However, when they started Peterman in LA last year, you knew that Tyrod was toast on this team - and I still think the issue leading up to that was that the Interior OL was not playing well at all in the two games before LA. That's one of the two issues I really have the biggest problem with at the moment. Second is having no foresight on the OL - regardless of whether both Wood and Incognito were somewhat abrupt ends to their time in Buffalo - they were both near the end of their career anyhow and the right side was weak all last year. They did very little to shore up the OL beyond garage sale specials. Dawkins looks like he was a good pick, but having Ducasse next to him is going to be a lot different than having Incognito and Wood to his interior. Again, what does a QB matter when your line looks like it couldn't stop even lower tier DL players in the NFL. They should go ahead and call Peterman the starter while McCarron recovers and maybe McCarron will be a bit healthier by the time Peterman gets injured. As for Glenn and Dareus - those were the right moves - bad contracts and I don't think either player will ever regain their prior forms that led to their contracts (albeit for different reasons). Watkins was also a good trade - there was no way he would stay in Buffalo after last year anyhow. Another good move. However, these were three cornerstone players, but just not dependable players. I'm fine with those moves. They went out and got KB - who is probably a better fit for this team and was a need after Woods left and Jordan Matthews showed that his injuries may be putting an end to his career.

Well the defense Rex installed was a joke that took a top notch unit and made them mediocre at their best. His saving grace was the Offense, and Whaley getting himTaylor, Incognito, and McCoy. If the defense would’ve been a tad better they probably make the playoffs both years. I was no Whaley fan, but he gave Rex everything he needed to succeed and piss poor coaching is why Rex won’t coach in the NFL as a coordinator or head coach ever again, unless a team is just run by a bunch of fools. The silver lining of Rex’s tenure was that they built a decent offense and found a pretty serviceable game managing QB that won’t make many mistakes and can extend plays and drives with his ability to move. This GM has been tearing that up since he got here and it is now at about ground zero - let’s see what he constructs, but he didn’t have to tear down the foundation to rebuild the house - sure it may have been cheaper to just tear it all down, but it’s going to get expensive again if you hit on the right picks and just damning if you don’t hit on enough in quick succession (see Sabres).

Yeah they had to get rid of some bad contracts, no question. But...they didn’t have to hit the reset button - they have some hubris about them, and they‘ll get a mulligan from fans if this is a brutal season. Look they blew their load on their top two picks that could’ve been used to round out the roster and fill some holes. Even if you buy into the need to splurge on a QB, fine, but why on a 20 yr old LB - when your OL is a complete mess and you need to protect that huge investment you just made? So does Allen get to develop with rookie OL players being inserted each year over the next few years with Castillo coaching? Great plan (sarcasm).

That’s what any decent coach would’ve done with the roster while Rex was coach, even with the Whaley roster. Now I think we a lot of people paying attention knew that there was an impending blow up coming with that roster with the bad contracts and win now, screw the long term strategy of Whaley. I think they got a guy in McDermott that capitalized on the remnants of that roster that hadn’t been churned yet and they made a couple of really good pick ups with Hyde and Poyer and got decent value for Watkins. The core starters of the Offense was still intact for the most part at QB, OL and RB - so they were capable last year, but not spectacular by any means on Offense. This offseason they blew up the Offense with shipping out Glenn and Tyrod for picks that roughly equated to unproven highly regarded talent at LB and QB and wood and Incognito retired, and their star on Offense is a RB who probably doesn’t have a lot left in the tank beyond this season. Now this a roster that Beane owns more than ever and I think the lack of foresight on the OL and importance of keeping a proven guy at QB while you develop a top prospect is going to rear it’s head as major miscalculations, especially with Castillo as OL coach. I really don’t understand the philosophy of what they are doing on Offense in an Offense driven league - unproven and underperforming talent at too many key positions is a risky way of trying to build a team and install a new offense - sure it could work, but it’s not what I’d call measured or wise.

I will give McDermott a lot of credit for the 9-7 record, but here are a couple of things about that record: Tyrod was the QB and he limited turnovers which helped the Turnover Differential a lot - the defense was very opportunistic - chances are that the current roster of QBs and the defense are not going to keep that differential where it was (these things have a tendency to even out) After trading Dareus there was a dropoff defensively against the run and the team was in a 3 game tail spin for various reasons, but it coincided with the Dareus trade The coaching on the OL was very problematic in that 3 game tail spin and as much as people want to blame the QB, the interior line was really to blame for the Offensive problems - moreover, the OL lost its best two remaining players after the Glenn trade - Dawkins is now the best player on the line, and Beane didn't do much to address these positions outside of Bodine and a couple of UDFAs. Yes Dennison was quickly canned, but I still think the loyalty to Castillo based on their long history of coaching together is given too much of a pass - we shall see. To me this is the biggest problem the Bills have and nothing works well Offensively without a decent line with decent coaching - I'm not sure that they have either with Wood, Glenn and Incognito gone and Castillo as coach with the Bills wasn't good last year. Maybe Castillo is on a short leash this year - I don't know, but I saw a significant drop off and I'm not sure how much of that had to do with Dennison. I wasn't a big fan of them drafting Allen - but he has looked decent so I'm cautiously optimistic. I thought that they had a real shot in the draft of addressing many, many positions with all of their picks and thought that they should have kept Tyrod or gone after Bridgewater as the bridge QB - instead they used a lot of what they had amassed to move up to get Allen - so yeah they couldn't address everything they would have liked to because they made one gaping hole that they had to fill with a high risk and high cost (and I get it to some degree - they didn't see Tyrod as the long term guy, but they hit a hard reset rather than a smooth transition - and there is a possibility it may come up snake eyes). Again, it may all work out in the long term- but I'm not that optimistic about this season because of the OL and the inexperience at QB. I agree that they have a more measured plan now and I don't discount that they are getting rid of talented guys that have value around the league but don't necessarily fit that well with their plan or are just too expensive for what they provide to the team. One thing seems better though - the cohesiveness of the plan and the head coach seems to garner respect from the team as opposed to the last two coaches which I think had their issues and the former GM that really didn't seem to have any idea beyond win now regardless of the longterm costs.

Last year was nice, but I'm still in the wait and see mode with the GM and coach. They've done a lot of things I don't really understand: they put the team in a bit of a talent deficit getting rid of guys like Glenn, Tyrod, Watkins, Dareus and letting other guys move on they amassed a lot of draft picks but then used a lot of them to move up for Allen they haven't addressed the OL enough and I don't understand why they think Juan Castillo is a good OL coach. Last year was the honeymoon, now its time to see if the marriage is worthwhile.

Gruden does like big receivers and Benjamin could be traded (although very doubtful there are many teams interested bc he has only one year left on current contract) - not even close to get Mack either, but I wouldn’t be surprised if Benjamin were moved. If he didn’t like playing Cam I doubt he is very stoked with this offense and McCarron, Peterman and a rookie that isn’t ready at QB.

I think the sports writers would just be better off doing things like grouping the teams based on their playoff and championship potential. The actual record predictions are just silly like Howard and Jeremy going through the schedule every week following a win or loss.

To me the jury is still out on the staff and GM - they've made a lot of bold moves getting rid of some pretty talented players. Was I impressed by last year? In a lot of ways I was, because they made the playoffs. I can't dispute that pretty damn good accomplishment considering the OC and OL coach being pretty bad at their jobs. I think people think Tyrod is disposable, because he's not a superstar caliber QB and he's not the type of guy that is going to just light it up in the passing game. I think we are going to see just how good steady and unspectacular with an ability to make a couple of plays in the running game to extend drives is compared to plain old backup caliber QB play with very limited ability to run. I honestly don't know how some people think someone like McCarron or Peterman can be a wash with Tyrod. Tyrod didn't really turn the ball over and he made enough plays in many games to help the Bills stay ahead or stay in games. Believe me I know the Bills could do better at QB than Tyrod, but at this point they are not better at QB, they are worse. Maybe Allen develops into a guy that can play pretty well by next year, but hoping for McCarron or Peterman to do as well or better than Tyrod is a longshot. And Allen is no sure thing, either. I didn't like him as the QB pick, but now I'm hoping he proves himself to be a superstar. Most likely we are going to see a lot more turnovers out of the QB position, a lot more stalled drives, very few broken plays turned into first downs - but hey we will have guys that can deliver an accurate timing pass a little more often = wash!!!! I thought that they should've held on to Tyrod until the Bills had a chance to assess their QB of the future and let him compete with a guy that was a very professional QB in terms of work ethic and leadership. To me QBs are like jobs, if you have a decent one you don't abandon it until you are sure you have a better offer available. You don't quit a good job to go to a start up that may or may not get off the ground, and drive for Uber to pay the Bills until it does.