Success

Beane's job is as safe as any in the NFL right now. I doubt there is any consideration of moving on from him at all, at least at the moment.

Proof is in the pudding, imo. This team has fallen short - but they have been good enough to win a Super Bowl each of the past 3 years.

Same. And he certainly nails a lot of other picks, with particular luck in the later rounds. But we're at a point now w/ Allen's contract kicking in that early round misses are less acceptable. There will always be misses - that's the draft. But if you want to stay around as a top contender, they have to b rare.

Not an unfair take. But I think he's ranked in the top half at his position (not great, but solid), and one thing I noticed is that he was much more impactful when Von was playing. Which isn't a great quality for a player to have. You want a guy who makes his own mark. But when he has good players around him, he makes impact plays. He gets more than his share of TFL's.

I'm a McCoy fan. He's not super talented, but he's kind of a gamer in the Pennington mode, and he has experience.

Not living up to his draft position doesn't = not being an impactful player. He's a good, solid player. He's not a star.

I guess the question is: is this a case of Elam not being good enough to live up close to his draft position - or of Benford far exceeding the expectations of his draft position? It's not really the worst problem, whatever the answer is.

Who isn't good at their job?

As long as the Patriots don't get an extra pick.

If nothing else - we have fantastic depth at the CB position. Probably our deepest unit..

Damien Harris isn't someone I'd describe as being on the bubble. He will be a big part of the offense this year.

Who is better? I'm not seeing that team right now. We're right at the top.

Elam is 22. Let's not overset expectations for him. Yes, he's a 1st rounder - but some guys grow into the expectation set by that. Let's see how it plays out. He clearly has talent.

We haven't had a combo like Cook/Harris in the JA era. It's a real running game.

I wish there were double eyerolls for posts like this.

Beane has really built a lot of great depth on the team. It's a stark contrast to the drought years. The only "lacking" area right now seems to be MLB.

Last year was the 1st time we felt like he wasn't the guy we thought he might be. He had an historic playoff game the year before. He looked great last week, and by all accounts, he looks a lot better throughout the preseason & camp.

Personally, I'm gonna need a bigger sample size than 5 minutes of a preseason game to make that determination.

I have zero doubt that McD has his reasons. He wouldn't do it if he didn't think there was upside.

The "risk" of doing this is kind of overplayed. Starters will be in on roughly 150 drives this season. 1-2 more isn't raising the odds of getting hurt in any meaningful way.

It's a good quesiton - and I do view that show as a bit of a joke, as most sports discussion shows are these days. But it was something they all seemed to agree on. It just got me thinking - do we have it? Is it different in KC, or Cincy? I really don't think so, at least as a significant differentiator. But the discussion did get me thinking about it, and wondering what the rest of the crew here thought.

I saw Broussard say this the other day, responding to Nick Wright's usual deranged lunacy about the Bills. He couldn't agree w/ some of ol' Nick's ridiculous assessments, but in trying to find some common ground for why Buffalo will never win anything ever at any time, he said that they do lack leadership, from any player, or from McDermott. Personally, I don't fully agree. I think Allen leads by example, and is a strong personality at the most important position. We've all seen those moments like the end of the 13 seconds game, where he was exhorting the defense on the sideline after our last score, and getting everyone fired up. McDermott - who has my support as a fan - I'm not so sure on. He seems to be in the weeds a lot, focused on the details. And I think he's a detail guy in general. I'm not sure if he truly LEADS this team, like some of the more legendary HC's who really set the tone, set the boundaries, and were able to create a vision everyone could get behind. Curious what everyone else thinks, and if a "lack of leadership" might be the missing piece that the team needs to figure out, or just develop as they continue to mature.

Since it's a sports board, I can't help but think of a sports expression - which coincidentally, gets applied to the Bills often. Whenever a team loses in a playoff game now, they don't just lose. They "choked." It wasn't always that way.

I remember people were saying similar things about Edmunds that they are saying about Elam now. Both were really young guys when they came into the league. Elam is only 22 this year. I have no worries about him - he made some great plays last year & you could see the potential. If he doesn't get the starting job, it doesn't mean he's not going to be a good or even great one for us down the line.

This, to me, is an overblown issue. I reject the comparisons to Burrow & Mahomes to this point. Anyone w/ eyes can see that JA is asked to do much more, with much less. That's not to say Allen is the best of the 3, but we simply don't know yet. A lot is going to happen over the course of each of their careers. I'm interested to see how the narrative changes this year, which I think it will. Allen will have better protection, and a better receiving corps, and will be healthy heading into the season. Turnovers will likely go down, but I don't think that matters as much as other factors. JA will always be the most risk-taking QB of the 3.