Ayjent

How was defense a priority when you don’t have anyone to protect your biggest investment in the draft and where you lost 3/5 starting level players? Oh because you decided to let your Starting CB and MLB go, and said we need to get someone from Carolina who was a poor performer and widely regarded as a horrible pickup for 10 mill/yr. Self-inflicted wounds that were avoidable and demonstrate that the process is flawed.

To a real estate agent to start looking for property elsewhere...wait...probably not because that would mean he was good at contingency planning in some way.

It wasn’t even close to hot it was in the 60s, and if the D could actually defend they could have gotten themselves off the field more often, especially in the first quarter. Gaines’ technique should have had his ass on the bench the first time he spun almost all the way around on an outside route leaving about a 7 yd cushion, but it happened at least two more times that I saw and who knows how many other times we didn’t. He was a huge liability. The D line put very little pressure on Flacco. It wasn’t like they were playing well and the the wheels fell off, they started with no wheels. They couldn’t even force a third down after the Ravens got into a 2 and 26 - they gave up a 28 yd completion thanks to the exceptional coverage of Gaines and a coverage scheme that looked like a prevent where you have a 10 point lead with 30 seconds left in the game.

Last year gave them too much confidence in their ability to make the right calls on players and trades. Last year was remarkable, and I get why fans were trusting. I saw a team that significantly overachieved with a lot of problems on the long term horizon where they would need to use every pick they had to try to restock the team. It’s finally caught up with them and I dont think they believe they have a bad team, but they are in for a hard lesson because it’s a team that simply is not good enough. Gutting a team isn’t hard, winning with a gutted team is.

That is the most concerning part. They were obviously convinced enough that they were okay with a raw rookie and a 2nd year guy that had shown nothing in live regular season action to trade away McCarron. Not that McCarron was a good pickup or would’ve been the best option, but my god Im getting the impression that they can’t assess the position at all.

You know he’s going to likely get to add to those stats and that’s the scary thing. It’s impressive - that the coaches and FO could be so clueless as to the talent they have at QB and on the OL.

Or provide necessary criticism and suggest how it could be better, do things to make it better and try to convince others to do the same.

When has Tyrod ever been that bad? If you referring to the circumstances that lead to Peterman starting last year, that was a case in point about how bad the offensive coaching and protection was, and quickly quieted any controversy. Tyrod was maybe a 1/3 of the issue with the Offense during that stretch and that’s being unkind to be honest - the defense was a sieve, the line was as strong a wet paper bag, the offensive play calling was putrid, and the WRs couldn’t get open. Expect more of the same this year and more often. The controversy by the end of the season is going to be - who’s responsible for this team being so crappy and what the hell should they do. People are projecting patience now, but they won’t be so patient near the end of the season when they’ve had to endure the rotten fruit of the Process. Seriously, gutting a team and creating a ton of dead cap space isn’t a hard job. Creating a talented winning team is - Beane has only done one of those. I keep asking the same question - what are the Bills going to do with all of that cap space? This isn’t the NBA where you get great players in Free Agency and can put together a dream team with a bunch of cap space - that never, ever works out in the NFL. This team doesnt have a a core group of proven young talent that they need the cap space to keep on the team. The cap space is not a big deal because this team has limited options to use it wisely. That dead cap space is how they were able to get decent hauls in some of the trades, but even then a 6th for Dareus wasn’t exactly a haul. What they’ve allowed to happen to the WR position and O line is embarrassing, and there is no QB, much less the two inexperienced guys they have on the roster who could succeed with the guys around them. Throw in an unproven OC who has had absolutely no success as an OC in the NFL, and has shown his coaching can’t overcome talent deficiencies, and you have a recipe for a sh!t sandwich.

I went to the Bills Eagles game a few years ago. Both teams were still in the hunt for the playoffs and the stadium and teams were really flat in terms of emotion. That’s when I thought Rex Ryan is a really, really bad coach, having watched a team that should have been sharp and focused look flat and disinterested. I knew he wasn’t a good coach but had some belief that the players liked him and would play hard, even if undisciplined. That was clearly not the case. I knew he needed to be axed ASAP - unfortunately we endured another year until it happened. The Ralph is an amazing place to watch a game with a ton of energy. My friend is a Seahawks fan and still talks about how he loved going to a game at the Ralph and that it was just the most fun pro game he’s ever been to - we were at the home opener with the fake FG TD pass. Love going to Bills games, and don’t really enjoy the experience that much in other places. The new stadiums feel so corporate, they lack character and the cost involved in the experience just prices out too many fun fans. The worst experience I’ve had is FedEx - that place suuuuuuucks.

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.