SoTier

I think that that's a good assessment of McDermott's philosophy. I've said a couple of times in posts that I felt that McDermott was basically a "my way or the highway" type of guy.

I feel the same. Coaches think in the short term, usually now, and maybe next week or the week after. GMs are supposed to be the guys who think in the long term, next season, the season after that. A long term mind set is critical for managing personnel within the salary cap, too. I truly feel that not having a GM who is truly "in charge" of the team, including selecting the HC and making final personnel decision, has been the biggest reason that the Bills have wallowed in mediocrity or worse since John Butler departed. If the GM selects the HC, he can pick a guy who fits his philosophy and whose willing to adapt to the players that are already there. Just because a team has a rough year or multiple years doesn't mean that all the players are crappy. Even though Cleveland went 0-16 last season, they still had some talented players, particularly on defense. If your team has a great 3-4 D, changing to a 4-3 that doesn't suit your personnel on the whim of your newly hired HC -- who may be a first time HC at that -- is a prescription for guaranteeing a long rebuild.

Dorsey may be the guy who turns them around, but they'll remain the poster child for "it's not where you draft but who you draft" until they prove that they've actually improved. That said, I thought that they might win more games than the Bills even before that travesty yesterday. Now I'm convinced of it, primarily because I don't think the Bills will win many games.

They're going to be on the phone to the Raiders promising next year's first rounder and Dion Dawkins for Kalil Mack.

Allen wasn't the problem at all yesterday. He's got a ways to go, but he certainly looks better than Manuel did at this point (Losman broke his leg in TC and didn't play until a few plays very late in the season). He has a lot of poise under pressure but he also has a lot more of the fundamentals he needs to learn, too. It certainly wouldn't hurt him to be the backup QB at least for a while, perhaps even the entire season, while he worked on improving his skills. My main worry in starting him is that it's likely any QB who starts in the regular season is going to get steam-rolled pretty regularly. I would hate for Allen to suffer a season ending injury in a meaningless game and be stuck on crutches so he couldn't work on his footwork, mechanics, etc which are things that need to be practiced almost incessantly until they become ingrained -- or worse, develop/redevelop bad habits while trying to escape pass rushers. As others have said, it's easy to go from Peterman or McCarron to Allen. It's not that easy to go from Allen to Peterman or McCarron. It says that "the QB of the future" can't win football games or is the reason the team isn't winning football games.

I've been a Bills fan since I was about 13. I'm 68. I no longer trust anybody in any position of authority in the Bills FO or on the coaching staff to actually have a clueabout how to build a winning team. The late John Butler was the last competent exec at OBD, and he left for California back in 2000 or 2001.

Whaley was good in the draft, too. His draft picks are sprinkled all over the NFL on playoff teams, including SB winning Philly. His problem was that when the Bills hired a new HC, they always hired one who wanted to start from scratch with his own players in his own system rather than change his system to fit the players he had. He's on his rookie contract. Unless they're first rounders, OLers don't get paid a lot.

If you watched the game yesterday, the only question you should be asking is, is Beane updating his database of NFL FA QBs hourly? Methinks he'll need it.

This. I'm not a Castillo fan, but let's get a couple of things straight here. Castillo didn't decide on the zone blocking scheme the Bills changed to in 2017 and have kept in 2018. That was Dennison and Daboll. Castillo didn't decide to bring in Ducasse or Newhouse or Bodine. He didn't let Seantrell Henderson walk in FA or trade away Cordy Glenn. He didn't ignore OL in the draft until very late in the fifth round, either. Those "sins" all sit squarely on McDermott and Beane. IOW, Castillo is dealing with the hand he's been dealt by those higher up the Bills food chain than assistant coach.

How could the Bills coaching staff have "hoped" that the OL would be better for Allen than it was for McCarron against Cleveland? Both Allen and McCarron got mugged by pretty good but hardly great pass rushes. I can understand fans blaming McCarron for his dismal performance against the Browns, but the coaching staff? That seems quite unbelievable unless they thought the offense played flat against Cleveland. Of course, it looked like the entire team came out flat and stayed that way for the entire game against Cinci, which is not a good omen.

What is "the right way"? What I see is McDermott and Beane bringing in their pals from Carolina or gambling on guys with injury issues or guys who've failed on other teams. I see them basically trying to copy the Carolina Panthers, but somewhat on the cheap. I'd rather have them try to copy the Philadelphia Eagles ... a team that went from 7-9 under Chip Kelly to 13-3 and Super Bowl champs two seasons later.

That's worked so well for the Browns recently hasn't it? OTOH, teams like Philly, Pittsburgh, KC, Atlanta, and even Baltimore, Carolina, Denver, Cinci etc, not to mention NE, seem to draft middle or low in the draft every year and still manage to find quality players. To rephrase "it ain't the size of the dog in the fight, it's the size of the fight in the dog", it's not where you draft, it's who you draft. Unfortunately, in the modern NFL, it's not even who you draft but how you manage your personnel so that you can keep as many of the good players you do draft as possible past their rookie contracts. The Bills have been masters at f'ing that up for the last 20 years ... and McDermott and Beane seem to be even more clueless about that their predecessors.

Not very much ... Groy is the big ticket guy in that group at 2.5 million.

Excellent post. A crappy OL also did in the 2017 Bengals. They remedied that quickly by trading for Glenn and drafting a C in the first round (Billy Price I think). Conversely, signing Andrew Whitworth helped put the LA Rams into the playoffs in 2017 with much more success for Goff and Gurley.

WWWWHHHHAAAAAAHHHHHH! Joeysixpackie doesn't like the truth intruding on his fantasy that his heros McDermott and Beane are going to conjure up a respectable OL out of thin air just before the season opener.

Exactly this. The Bills have an OL filled with guys who have been or should have been backups all their careers no matter where they were drafted. The Bills need at least a couple of guys who are good enough to be starters on most teams in the league, and Chance Warmack ain't one.

Chance Warmack is a career backup. The Bills already have an OL full of backup quality players. Pass ... even for the seventh rounder the article author suggested Philly would take.

The sky isn't falling because it already fell ... when Eric Wood was forced into retirement by injury and the team was just fine with Richie Incognito retiring, too. Then, in FA, they let Seantrel Henderson leave before they traded away proven LT Cordy Glenn. Whatever could have been done to address the OL should have been done months ago in FA and the draft, but as numerous posters have noted, McDermott and Beane chose to go with bottom feeder FAs and a single, later round prospect in the draft. There are virtually never starter caliber OLers available at the end of preseason. A team might pick up a young OL prospect who can't make another team's final 53 but teams generally don't sacrifice starting OLers because of the cap so late in the game. Quality OLers are just too valuable because a team without a decent OL is totally stymied on offense no matter what other stars a team may have on offense. Most teams GMs/HCs understand this but apparently it's a lesson that McDermott and Beane still have to learn.

I have never been an advocate of trading up in the draft because too many prospects, even high first rounders, bust or suffer career altering/ending injuries early in their careers to make it a sound draft strategy except for a very exceptional prospect, which would usually be a consensus #1 pick in the draft. IMO, Beane spent draft picks like the proverbial drunken sailor.

True. It's one of the reasons why I have likened McDermott to Jauron: he believed that talent wasn't particularly important and that "work ethic" could compensate for its lack. McDermott seems to be of that same opinion. He's a much better coach than Jauron, but I don't like his influence in selecting personnel any more than I liked Jauron's.

Cherish the memory of the playoffs, dude, because you're not likely to have any new ones in the near future. Contrary to some fans' fantasies, 2019 doesn't look the year the Bills "put it all together" and dominate the AFCE ... or even 2020.

There is a serious talent issue. Except for Dawkins, Miller, and Teller, all the others have been around awhile, and the book on them is that they're not very good. Most are JAGs at best, but mostly career backups. The Bills have the lowest OL payroll in the NFL, and with the OL, you usually get what you pay for. Dawkins is a sophomore who played next to Incognito as a rookie. Miller was decent as a rookie (2016) but lost his starting job in 2017, and Teller is a rookie taken at the end of the fifth round. I'm not sure if better coaching would help but Castillo wasn't particularly good last season with more talent.

How about instead of trading up to 16 to take Edmunds, the Bills stay at #22 or #23 and take Isaiah Wynn, G, and use that extra pick on a LB prospect? If they traded up to 16, they could have taken Frank Ragnow or Billy Price (both centers). Maybe they could have gambled and wound up still getting Edmunds at #22 or #23 and used that extra pick on an OLer. Edmunds simply isn't that outstanding a prospect to merit trading up when the Bills had already given up so much to get Allen, and had so many needs on both sides of the ball. I thought that the Bills gave up too much to be sure that they got Allen, but the Edmunds pick really pee'd me off. IMO, it's going to haunt the Bills for years to come. A team can't win many games without a decent OL because even Brady can't throw TDs when he's on his back.

I have. The Bills OL back in 2008 and 2009 under Dick Jauron was about as bad at pass pro, and it couldn't run block at all. Whatever yards Marshawn Lynch and Fred Jackson got in those years came from them without any "help" from their OL.

0-8 won't surprise me ... I was thinking that was possible even before today. 1-7 seems most likely ... I think the Colts are most likely win ... any team with a good DL, the Bills QBs will be proverbial sitting ducks unless something changes drastically. 2-6 would surprise me ... I just can't see a scenario where the Bills get that lucky unless maybe their opponents wind up with half their team suffering from the flu on game day.