Shaw66

We DO know that he ran the football personnel side of the business until McDermott arrived. My point is that all of the decisions before McD arrived were his, and all of the decisions after McD arrived were based primarily on information Whaley's organization developed. So if we like what the Bills have done in the off season, a lot of the credit fairly goes to Whaley. Would Whaley have made all the same decisions (like drafting Jones)? I don't know. But Whaley developed all the information on which the Jones choice was made.

My view, too. As McD said before the draft, he thought the Bills #2 guy was already on the roster. Then they drafted Jones. So at that point they seemed set at WR. Then Maclin unexpectedly drops on the market. If they can sign him it's great team building. And I have to point that Whaley was better than all his harshest critics suggest. WHALEY let Woods go and signed the Holmes, Brown and the others. WHALEY drafted Jones. And Whaley would have been in the hunt for Maclin, because Whaley had managed the cap situation well enough to give the Bills the room they need to sign Maclin. People will say that McDermott ran everything since the day he took over, but he didn't build the scouting organization, he didn't single-handedly generate the evaluations of the free agents the Bills signed before the draft, he didn't scout Jones like the Bills scouting organization did. That was all done under Whaley's management. It doesn't make Whaley a god, but he was a capable GM. When Woods played injured, he barely functional. When he played healthy he was good, but even at his healthiest, he wasn't the threat Maclin has been.

The comments are kind of cryptic, but it IS a great review of Buffalo eateries.

Maclin combine - 4.45. Woods - 4.51. Watkins - 4.43 I've always thought of Maclin as a guy who doesn't have top end speed but enough speed to get deep. Woods had barely enough deep speed. There's no question that Maclin, when healthy, is a deep threat. I think of him as an elite #2 receiver (or a marginal #1). If healthy, Sammy and Maclin on the field together would be one of the best tandems in the league.

No doubt he's a good receiver. And tough. To be honest, I'd be happy if the Bills signed either.

I also think he benefited from playing with Peyton. A good receiver playing with a great QB always puts up better numbers than he's actually worth. Deion Branch is the prime example, and there are others.

Decker might be the better possession receiver, and therefore he might be more valuable in the Bills offense. Maclin's more explosive.

Congratulations to all you posters. This is one amazing thread. Just a bunch of Bills fans hangin out, hopin for some news. In the meantime, shootin the breeze about whatever interests them. I check in every few minutes to see if there's any news, and the conversation's taken another turn. Quite entertaining. Great job!

Same with me. I hadn't looked at this for days. Those gifs are great. I like the possibility too. He's not a number one guy but he is close. Best insurance if Watkins goes down. If they're both playing its a dynamic combo.

Yes. And in two years all of those good decisions will look like bad ones when the Bills hire Rob Ryan and he cleans house. Round and round we go.

Nice analysis. There's a lot of pressure on Hughes and Lawson.

I agree. Analysis of the roster does very little for me. Plus, even the roster analysis is light. The Bills are probably BETTER at safety than they were last year, and there's a good chance they're no worse at corner. They lost Brown and gain Ragland. What happens at receiver is much dependent on what Watkins does. If he's what he should be, the Bills have more than enough talent at receiver to replace the guys lost. The roster isn't the issue. The coach is the issue. And there are only two questions about the coach: Will he succeed? How soon? After that, Tyrod is the only question. If the Bills get two good answers about the coach and one about Tyrod, the rest of the roster is fine.

Awful contract? His average salary is 6th in the league. He's a top 10 tight end playing on a team that doesn't throw the ball. Not sure it's all that horrible.

The Tyrod narrative around here is unbelievable. In 2016 the Bills threw fewer passes than any other team and playing 15 games Clay finished 8th among tight ends in receptions. In 2015 the Bills threw the second fewest passes in the league and playing 13 games Clay finished 12th among tight ends in receptions. So how in the world are people concluding that Taylor doesn't see Clay? I know, you sat in your basement for three weeks straight and watched All-22 and counted the times you think Clay was open and you think Taylor should have seen him and thrown to him. Or you saw a stat someplace that said Taylor throws over the middle less than other QBs, and since the TE runs patterns over the middle, Taylor wasn't throwing to Clay enough. How often could Taylor possibly have missed Clay when Clay's a top 10 receiver among tight ends playing for the offense that passes less than any other offense in the league. The question isn't why didn't Taylor throw more to Clay. The question is why didn't he throw more to the wideouts.

I don't much about Barnridge, but I don't think this makes a lot of sense. If I understand it correctly, if the Bills cut Clay now he count's $13,500,000 against the cap. That's a big hit; as some said, it's more than keeping him. So the the strategy would be to keep Clay and sign Barnridge to a low ball deal this year with a big guaranteed boost next season. But cutting Clay even next season isn't so pretty - it's still a $9 million cap hit next year. So the Bills are likely to keep Clay for the next two seasons. Plus, I don't know where this "damaged" goods stuff comes from. In the last four seasons Clay has missed six games. That's more than adequate reliability. He caught 57 passes last season, which if I counted correctly was 8th in the league. And that's on a team with he fewest passing attempts in the league. Clay's played six seasons and has caught 100 more passes than Barnidge has caught in eight. So why would the Bills be anxious to replace Clay with Barnidge?

Clay has been injury prone? He has missed 6 games in 4 years. I will take that all day.

This a good example why stats get less useful the more detailed they get. Tonyou run a lot your TOP is skewed upward becausemthw clock stops less.fequently than if you pass a lot. Passing teams usually have lousy TOP.

the season rides mostly on McDermott. If he's good Taylor can be ordinary and the Bills are okay. If McD isn't good it doesn't matter how good Taylor is. Of course it sums it up. All he said is that for the Bills to be good, the defense has to be good, the run game has to be good and the pass game has be good. Powerful insight.

You say 15, I say 20. It's a pretty big number. But you are correct, none are available. And most of your 15 probably aren't upgrades.

Yes, this is correct. I think the Bills have a pretty good team with, at best, an unproven QB. Sammy healthy and the defense playing well, Tyrod takes them to the playoffs, along with about 20 other QBs. That, in fact, is the strategy that many teams follow. Panthers, Ravens, Atlanta (although you can at least argue about Ryan being elite), Houston (with disastrous results so far), Atizona, Kansas City. I think we all agree on one thing, and that is that the only way you can compete for the Super Bowl, year in and year out, is to have an elite QB. If you have one of those, you're in the fight every year. Peyton, Brady, Rodgers, Ben, maybe Ryan. If you don't have one but you have one of the 20, you're trying to get everything to come together for a season or two. If you can, you can make a run at the Lombardi. In the meantime, everyone is looking for the elite QB. The real debate here has been whether the Bills should be actively looking for someone better to replace Tyrod, because he's at the bottom of the 20, or should be actively building around him because he has the potential to be around the top of those 20.

Sorry, I didn't read your post carefully enough. You're right. I thought you were saying these things were the case, but you clearly didn't say that. If they WERE true, then you're absolutely correct - plenty of non-Tyrod reasons that Watkins would be on the block.

Yeah, I don't think Taylor had trouble getting the ball to Watkins. He played 13 games in 2015. I think he missed the games Manuel played. He had 60 receptions for over 1000 yards. in 2016 he played half a season, and he was hurting some of the time, and he still had 430 yards. That doesn't sound like his QB couldn't get him the ball. The year before is the year his QB couldn't get him the ball - that's when EJ was throwing to him. If they trade Watkins before this season, it MAY mean they don't have confidence in Taylor, but what I think it really means is that there IS a general housecleaning coming. That McD really does want a total rebuild. If Watkins goes, he'll be the second, behind Gilmore, but ahead of some others who will go at the end of the season. I don't think that's happening, but it could be. I think they're keeping Watkins for this season. If he's still injured, they may give up at the end of the season. But if he has his first big season, they re-sign or franchise him.

I don't disagree with that. But where is the long-term outlook saying he isn't going to be available? As I said, my understanding is that it's typically a two-year recovery from this injury, and Sammy's well into his second year. Julio Jones recovered. I think Marquise Goodwin is chronically injured. Sammy played all through college uninjured. This is more than likely just a bad string of injuries, not something chronic. (Of course, the Bills may have another opinion, and they have better info.)

Actually, my questions were serious. Maybe there's more out than I know about. I know it's the wrong thread, but the only important rule here is that you never give up on potentially great talent too early. It's always better to keep a guy with big potential a year too long than to dump him a year too early. Great talent is special.

Where'd you get all of this stuff? Prognosis on the foot is not good? My understanding is that most guys do just fine recovering from this, just not in a year. If I recall correctly, Julio Jones did the same thing. Was it reported that Watkins' agent said Watkins wants to leave. Was it reported that Watkins wants more in a contract than the Bills will offer? Was it reported that Watkins is still hurt? Was it reported that the Bills are done with him, that they've decided he doesn't fit? And, by the way, this notion that the Bills don't want him because there isn't another player on the roster who replicates his skills would mean that the Bills also wouldn't want Julio Jones, Adrian Peterson, Aaron Rodgers, JJ Watt or any other guy who's a top 20 player in the league, That's a really stupid idea.