Shaw66

The Patriots' roster has been getting weaker and weaker as the years go by. It's a testament to Belichick's genius and how valuable Brady is to him. Belichick will restock and reinvent the team. Remember it happened when he drafted Gron k and Hernandez. It will happen again. It will continue to happen at least until Brady, and maybe not even then. Belichick will always be near the top competitively, so long as he has a quarterback.

I haven't read the entire argument between you and others, and it's off the point of this thread, but I have to say that what you say about Allen in the quotes post and about Allen vs. Manuel is on the money. Manuel didn't LOOK like a winner to me on his first season, but statistically he had a pretty good season, for a rookie, especially given the talent around him. Statistically, Allen wasn't nearly as good, but he LOOKED like a winner to me, so I'm hopeful. And your point about the short passing game is correct. Allen needs to improve his short and mid-range game. The Bills coaches have been clear about. And I think he will, because his problem was not that he couldn't complete the throws so much as it was that he didn't make the throws. The Bills want him to take the high percentage throw every time, instead of the 50% throw deep. Allen often ignored the outlet pass, and he isn't supposed to. That message will be drilled into him this year. It's also the reason they got Beasley.

Right, all around. I do think that McD wanted to pick his QB with his new GM. I think he directed the trade down and the decision to pass on Mahomes.

Yes, buy you said was the team had an overall lack of talent, and since we were talking about the team two years ago, when McD arrived, there wasn't a lack of talent. They had Gilmore, Wattkins, Dareus, Hughes, Kyle, Incognito. It wasn't the talent McD wanted, but if was talent.

I think it's pretty hard to make your case. Bills were 7-9 and 8-8 for the two years before those drafts, and they had crappy coaching except for Lynn in the second tear. How bad could the talent have been?

This. Plus Beane's stated objective that he builds through the draft. He wanted to change just about the entire roster, and it's impossible to replace it through the draft in even three years. So he needed guys to fill in. Last year he had no mone to being any real talent, so he did the best he could. Admittedly, he did pretty poprly on the receiver room last year, at least until Foster carme around. What I'm expecting is that the Bills will have two rookies starting in September and one or two more starting by November. That's 3-4 young guys. Add in maybe four free agents playing a lot - Morse, another lineman, Brown and Beasley. Then they will do it again in 2020 and then they will have their roster set.

As Buffalo said, I think extending Wood was about having veteran leadership. He was the only dependable veteran on the line, Richie being a perpetual questionmark. I think you are right about the "oh really" thing, except for this. I've been saying for more than a year that McD is a closet Belichick disciple, and Belichick has made a living on the "oh really" free agents. He wanted Beasley. He took Hogan. He took that one-year-wonder backup running back from the Bills. He took the Bills' tight end. He takes guys like that all the time. Once in a while he will pay really big for a Gilmore or a Welker, but most his free agent signings are "oh really" "guys. The reality of those signings is that some are good for a year or two and some bust in the first year. You keep taking them, keeping some and cutting some. You called it admitting mistakes. But the reality is that using that philosophy, you know you will have mistakes. What you're counting on is a decent yield. Of 50-60% of them work out, you're doing okay. Frankly, it's the same thing with draft picks. You want 100% yield in the first three rounds, but after that it's about yield.

Your post was about good performance for the investment. My post was about the pointlessness of that comparison. There is no stat that meaningfully captures the performance of players other than qbs. Nothing measures Beasley's route running or blocking, nothing measures Gore's pass protection or locker room presence. Even YP reception and YP carry aren't very useful measures of value. Putting dollar values on performance makes even less sense. Right. If Brown contributes meaningfully to Allen's success, then Brown was worth it regardless of his stats.

I think the question itself is meaningless. It's a team game, and who accumulates yards and points simply doesn't matter. Offensive total yards and total points and defensive total yards and total points are what matters. By far, the only individual stats that matter are the QBS stats. The relationship between a player's compensation and his stats is really, really pointless. If Shady gains 114 yards on the season and catches 12 passes, and if the Bills go 12-4, why Wil I care how much he was paid? It's a team game.

Thanks for this, and thanks to NyNole, too. PFF is far, far from being the definitive word on anything. People need to remember Kyle Williams being incredulous when he realized evaluations like PFF exist. He asked how anyone except a coach who knew what the player's assignment was could possibly evaluate how he did on a play. And there's a much more important point, and that is that offensive line play is very much a team thing. When a play succeeds, it's because the line succeeded as a UNIT. Whether the Bills line has improved will depend on how the coaches are able to get the line to succeed as a UNIT. Having said that, going from no one who was good at center to someone who is among the best is a huge upgrade. A guy who can read the defense and call assignments, as well as make all the blocks, will be a huge improvement alone. Morse will make the guards better just by being there.

That's the way I heard it. He didn't say anything like "we will continue to be in touch with his agent."

This is just your negative spin on that class. Davis they hoped would recover from injuries. Star has been, I think, exactly what they wanted. Bodine was signed to compete to start. Morse was signed this year to start. Big difference between those expectations. McCarron was supposed to be a veteran presence and compete to start. If the Bills had expected their free agent qb to start they wouldn't have stayed out of the free agent and just signed the last guy left. Ivory couldn't run behind the oline any better than Shady could. I think you may have had unrealistic expectations out of that class. I didn't. Many of them didn't disappoint me because I didn't expect much from them. Beane also didn't expect much from them. He has always said that you build through the draft and fill in with free agents.

I'm not down on him at all. I revere him. He brought pro football to Buffalo, kept it there when it was in his personal interest to move, assured it would stay when he died, and gave hundreds of millions of dollars to the City to boot. But he often was tight fisted and he generally didn't make good football decisions. Running a winning pro football franchise just wasn't something he was good at.

Yea, Thurman. Combat that nonsense. Every GM misses sometime. Wait until the draft. Then watch training camp. The Bills are going to be putting more talent on the field for the third consecutive season, and they will do it again next year too.

There is no doubt the franchise has changed dramatically. Yes, they haven't won yet, but the FRANCHISE has changed dramatically. To wit: 1. Ralph Wilson is gone. Great man, but not a successful owner. Was willing to spend only inconsistently. He insisted a positive bottom line, and that insistence got in the way of team building. Pegulas are completely different in that regard. 2. Russ Brandon is gone. 3. Brandon Beane has a clear focus, and he is extremely disciplined. He approach is thoughtful. For examole, McD wants Allen to focus on the short passing game, so Beane's gets one of the best short-game receivers in the league. Great focus. 4. McD is organized and has a system. His players love it and want to play for him. 5. The Bills are all in on a great young QB. Yes, he still must improve, but the Bills haven't had this kind of talent in the building since Bledsoe or maybe Kelly. That's dramatically different.

In his interview with John Murphy, Beane sounded to me like he is done with Ziggy. Didn't say It exactly, but his tone and how he said things sounded like the Bills have decided they aren't interested. Ziggy's price will have to come down.

Guy knows what he is doing. Im pp ressive.

Yes, thanks to all. If its.about the Bill's, its here. Thanks to all.

You're a pro! Thanks.

It's actually a great option if there is a team that wants to move up.

I've ignored pretty much all the news, but I'm on TBD daily. Yolo and we are amazing. Others as well. If there's Bills news, it's on TBD.

On a tour. Hanoi, Halong Bay, HoI An in Viet Nam. Siem Reap in Cambodia to see Angkor Wat. Luang Prabang in Laos and two days on a Mekong River boat to Thailand. Chiang Rai in Thailand, Bangkok tomorrow, then Singapore and home. As others have said, it seems a lot of Americans retire to Thailand. Cost of living is low, and most people who live in the cities eat most meals on the street. Good, low cost food. Haven't been to the beaches. Temples ARE amazing, but after a while they are just another temple. People are really friendly. Free speech doesn't exist here, and not much democracy either, but the people don't seem to mind much. They have homes, food and family, and they generally have more money then their parents had. Capitalism in Viet Nam and Thailand is changing those countries almost before your eyes. Cambodia will need several more decades to overcome the devestation of US bombing, civil war and and the Khmer Rouge. What happened there was horrifying. They're all scared of the Chinese, but they like Chinese investors. Fascinating to see life and civilization so different from our own. And yes, there seems to be almost total lack of awareness of American football. McDermott once said, as he was describing the process, that everyone gets evalauted regularly and has objective set regularly, including himself. Terry is pretty hands off; that leaves Beane as the only one to evaluate McD.

I will be there in about three days. I will be the guy in the Bills cap. Look for me.

He couldn't do it on his own, I agree. And I agree that the Pegulas also might fire the package. But I am certain it's Beane's responsibility to evaluate McD, do performance reviews. I can imagine a scenario where he'd go to the Pegulas and recommend a new coach. It's no different from players. It's part of the process. If Beane can getter a better player, he gets him and they let someone go. That happens when a player has maxed out on his potential and just won't get any better. Of McD maxed out and Beane thought he could get a better coach, I think it's his job to do it. I agree with the others. I think McD is doing fine. But if the Bills go 6-10 this season, Beane has to begin to wonder about his coach.

Tourism. We were there for a half day, some people stay for a couple days and help take care of the elephants. American, European, Asian tourists like not because they're saving wildlife and protecting the environment. You can invest in the company. He says they are currently earning 7% for the investors. they can do it because the cost of living is low here, so their employees are getting paid maybe $1000, $1500 a month and they think they're getting paid a lot. It was an interesting place.