Shaw66

This is actually wrong. A lot of people can score in the 40s on the Wonderlic if they have enough time. The questions aren't very hard. It isn't the SATs. The whole point of the Wonderlic is to see if you can think accurately and quickly under pressure. Most people don't finish the test within the time limit.

This is an interesting point. I don't think it's all on Frazier. I think McD likes to come with just four. I tend to agree with you. We will see if the philosophy changes. I have to think that with Edmunds speed they'd be looking for opportunities to get him free runs at the qb, let alone coming from other positions, as well.

Agreed. People just need to understand that if they go DL at 9 it's because they did align. If the BPA is an OT, some people will be surprised, but Beane's view will be that he will still find DL help later.

Again, listen to his interview. He sounds completely willing to get his DL/edge guy in the third round, if that's how it falls. He is not going away from his BPA in the early rounds. He is really clear about this. He and McD have a plan, and their discipline is st I ck with the plan. He said last year, in discussing how the draft went, that he tells his staff to pull him back if he gets excited about someone and starts to deviate from the plan. They are really rigorous about it. I'm not saying they won't go DL at 9. Not saying they won't trade up and go DL with a higher pick. What I'm saying is that if they do go DL in round 1, it will because the guy they take is the highest rated on theit board, not because they have a need.

Not necessation in the first round. Listen to the Beane interview. He said, as he always does, that they will go BPA without regard to position. He was pretty clear that there is depth in the draft at DL, which means you can wait to get qood quality at DL. He also essentially said the DL depth in the draft meant they didn't have to be aggressive in free agency. So it's clear they are looking for DL help in the draft. He said what he had made clear before. He is a pure BPA guy in the early rounds, and he moves toward need in the later rounds.

Man, I like the Bills ownership, GM and coach. Every time I hear a Beane interview, I learn something and my respect for him grows. I love when he says there's a plan, they're following the plan and he and the Pegs and McD all are on board. He's pretty frank about what he is doing, without naming names. His 2019 roster is going to be better than 2018, and his 2020 roster is going to be better than 2019. His players are on notice - the Bills want to keep getting better at every position. If you want to play, get better, because someone else is going to be behind ready to take your spot. Lovin it.

Right. Bills will have at least a few RBs in camp and the old guys will be watching a lot. If a youngster emerges, he could quickly become the backup if one of old guys has lost it. Plus, the plan might turn out to be that Gore is the third down back. In that case, a shifty rookie might spell Shady. In that case it would look like running back by committee. Someone said he'd rather give up talent a year to early than a year too late. I generally agree. But ask Drew Brees about Darren Sproles. I think when you're talking HOF talent like Gore and Shady, or a guy like Sproles, in each case a guy who has shown he can do things practically no one else can do, that rule doesn't apply. You'd rather carry an over the hill an extra year than watch him put up 1000 yards for someone else. Imagine how the Dolphins will feel if Gore has 1000 rushing and receiving. Tomlinson had a decent year with the Jets. They kept him for the next season, when he ran out of gas. I don't fault them for that.

I think that if Shady runs well this year, he will want to keep playing for the Bills, because he likes the coach, the attitude, the quarterback and the chances to win a championship. I think the age thing is overblown. These guys stay in great shape, and they aren't asked to have 30 plus touches every week like in the old days. Barry Sanders retired at 31 and had a lot left in the tank. Marcus Allen started double digit games every season from age 33 to 36. Adrian Peterson. Frank Gore. Walter Payton rushed for 1300 yards at age 32. Do I think the Bills need young blood at running back? Sure. But I'm firmly in the running backs are a dime a dozen camp. Bell is great, but I wouldn't pay big bucks for him. Keep filling the spot with young talent from the draft and free agency, and eventually you will get lucky. When the right guy appears in the first round, take him. When a Philadelphia calls and offers you a HOF back for a skinny linebacker, do it. Frankly, when you don't have your QB, the best running back won't save you. When you do have your QB, the best running back is a luxury and not essential.

Shady only dances when there isn't a hole. He danced a lot lastnyear because there were no holes. Ivory's production was down for the same reason. Shady doesn't dance when he has any room to run. He hits the hole and goes. I agree he's the same back he has been. And that's why McD kept defending him at the end of the season when reporters asked if Shady was done. If the oline produces thisnyear, Shady will be fine and he will sign an extension.

BPA, people. BPA. How many times do you need Beane to tell you? Draft for BPA, fill holes in free agency. If McBeane felt they had a serious need for a pass rusher, they would have been more active in early free agency. They weren't active. That tells you they're willing to go into the season with what they have plus whatever free agency scraps may be out there. Beane likes having picks, so I dont see him trading for Clowney. If Beane thought Ansah was a fit, Ansah would be signed by now. Beane's style is to decide whether he wants a guy. If he does, he signs him and moves on. If he doesn't, he moves on. He doesn't seem to get into extended on and off discussions for players.

That's certainly my rule for the first round. As much as I loved getting Sammy at the time, trading up in the first round is simply too expensive for any position other than QB. Put another way, no non-QB is going to change your team so much that he's worth trading up for. Now, of course, after the fact you can say that trading up would be worth it to get a JJ Watt or a Lawrence Taylor or someone of that caliber. However, there are a lot more guys predicted to be the next Watt or Taylor than actually make it. If there is one position other than QB that it may be worth trading up for, that position would be middle linebacker. That box is already checked. Trading up in the second or third round to get a targeted player makes some sense. Plus, McBeane have been very clear that they are patient. They view building as a multi-year process, and they clearly seem to think that the chances are the team is improved more by the two players they can get with, say a first and a third than the one player they can get with a higher first.

It means a lot to me. I've listened to McBeane a lot, and I think I understand the process, at least in broad outline. It's very specific, and McBeane don't want to bother with guys who aren't willing to work within their system. As for Brown, I think I get it. Beane said whenever there is exceptional talent available, you have to inquire about it. I think what happened is that they inquired about Brown and concluded that they could reach an agreement with the Steelers, if they could also reach an agreement with Brown. Reaching an agreement with Brown would include getting a sense of whether he would work within the process. Apparently, almost as soon as they reached out to Brown, they realized either Brown wanted too much money or Brown just didn't want to be in Buffalo. If he didn't want to be in Buffalo, then he obviously isn't buying the process. Assuming I'm right about this, what Beane did made sense - pursue the guy until you find out enough about him to know he isn't a fit. I think you're exactly right. Exactly. Geno Auriemma, who coaches the UConn women's team, says he regularly stops recruiting a kid with super talent as soon as he understands she isn't willing to commit to his process.

I'm in complete agreement with this. Like you, I got excited about him in preseason. As you say, he just LOOKS like a QB. And, as you have done, you can break it down in all these little things that he does, in the pocket and outside the pocket. I haven't watched Josh video in a few weeks, and see these highlights brings it all back to me. I'm looking forward to the new season.

I don't know if you're joking, but that IS the thing. McBeane are looking only for guys who fit their mold, and those are guys who fit the process. That's why the interviews are so important to McBeane. They want to assess whether the guy will work daily at improving as well as whether the guy likes to hit people.

One reason is to keep him from getting injured. Several of those replays he took hits he didn't need to. I assume that the coaches will continue to drill him about getting down. Brady avoids contact every chance he gets; he does it because he's been told it's more important to have him on the field than to gain whatever extra yards he thinks he can gain by taking a hit. What Brady does best is does what he's told. Allen needs some of that.

Right. And I continue to think that McDermott is a closet Belichick disciple. That's why he wanted Daboll to run the offense. He wants, I'm guessing, Daboll to install a QB-driven offense that builds on itself year after year, with a talented QB improving year after year. Daboll worked in that system for several years. If McDermott can pull it off, we will be entering into another era of Bills greatness.

What I really like watching these replays is his vision. His eyes are always downfield, he's always looking for a receiver, and when he finds someone, he has the arm to deliver the ball. I continue to think that he's going to surprise a lot of NFL fans, even Bills fans, with what he does this season.

I find this quote very interesting: Anyone who doesn’t start off their scouting report by saying that guard Dru Samia plays with a mean streak has already failed to pinpoint his most dominant trait. He is an alpha who doesn’t back down from anyone. Sure, the entire line plays with that mentality, but Samia is on another level. He is probably the least-heralded guy on the Sooners’ offensive line, but when you turn the film on he stands out, and it starts with his attitude. He plays as if he hates anyone in an opposing jersey and will punish them through the whistle. Over the past year, there have been a half dozen times or more when McDermott or Beane or both (I don't recall who said it or when) said something about the Buffalo Bills are going to be known as a team that (and I'm paraphrasing) punishes people, that doesn't back down from anyone, that outhits every team in the league. They've said things like that. Then you see little things, like the Bills are interested in this guy, whose most outstanding trait is that he has that attitude. You see most many guys from last season's offensive line gone, but Teller, whose physicality stands out, remaining on the roster. You see guys like Duke Williams and Cole Beasley signed, who have demonstrated that they like to hit people and who play with an edge. When I watched Duke Williams video, his intensity reminded me of Hines Ward. Among the things that I like about McBeane is that this point is not lost on them. You can scheme all you want, you can collect superstar talents, you can talk about teamwork, togetherness and the process, but if you aren't going to hit people, block ferociously and tackle relentlessly, you aren't going to win consistently. I think that's a point that's often overlooked about the Patriots - they are physically tough. They hit all the time, and they tackle effectively. One of the things that made the Super Bowl so competitive this year was that the Rams came out prepared to hit the Pats as hard as the Pats hit them. It was a dog-fight from the beginning. I like that McBeane seem focused on this attribute as they assemble the team. Oh, yeah, that was one of the things that's been mentioned about Feliciano. His signing was one of the recent times this notion - intense physicality - was mentioned.

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.