SoTier

In 2017, Stephon Gilmore, Robert Woods, and Marquise Goodwin all walked away in FA with McDermott as HC. Beane traded Sammy Watkins the year before his contract would have expired, and Ronald Darby 2 years into his rookie contract. In 2018, the Bills failed to re-sign Preston Brown and Seantrel Henderson, who while only a backup, was better than any of the scrubs the Bills currently have pretending to play LT except for Dion Dawkins.

Are you implying that Levitre wasn't healthy? That seems to be a favorite excuse that some fans make for the Bills' questionable move, but the fact is that Levitre started every Bills game during his four years with the Bills. He then went on to start 32 more games in 2 seasons with the Titans and another 32 more games in his first 2 seasons with the Falcons. In fact, the three games that Levitre missed in 2017 were the first 3 games he missed in his entire career ... and he's back to starting for the Falcons once again. He started 128 straight games for three teams. Most successful teams have a GM who's more than a glorified scout and scapegoat for a string of mostly less than competent HCs, which has been what the Bills have had since Tom Donahoe was fired in 2006 and Russ Brandon took control of the team.

Ah, yes. The Bills ALWAYS want to keep the best young players from the draft or as UDFAs that they develop, but they can't "afford" to keep them, so they let them walk rather than re-sign them or trade them away because the Bills "wouldn't have been able to re-sign them anyway" , and Bills fans applaud Bills management for making "the right move" ... again and again and again.

Except that the current regime seems to be emulating the old regime. The shedding of the best players rather than paying them, replacing good young veterans with bottom feeder FAs and rookies, drafting for need at the top of the draft while passing on better prospects because the incumbents at those positions were traded or allowed to walk in FA, ignoring the offense -- especially the OL -- has continued, so the ghosts of Ralph and Russ continue to haunt the Bills in the present. Only the names have changed. Jason Peters wanted to stay with the Bills until he found out that they tried to cheat him by low-balling him on his new contract and then they refused to renegotiate until he forced their hands with a hold out. Plain and simple, the Bills signed Peters to a contract that was modest even for a JAG RT rather than the Pro Bowl LT he had developed into. By the time they even offered him a new contract, Peters was done with the organization and announced that he would play out his contract but not re-sign. He was traded within days of the Bills finally offering him a new contract. "He didn't want to be here" was the line that the Bills fed to their sycophants in the media to try to save face with the fan base. Obviously they did their work pretty well since their propaganda continues to be defended by Bills apologists all these years later.

Except by the Bills. The Peters trade was easily the second worst trade in Bills history, only topped by the trading of QB Darryl Lamonica for a couple of scrubs from Oakland back in the 1960s. They also traded Cordy Glenn to move up to get Allen. If Dawkins doesn't continue to develop off his good rookie season or Allen doesn't become a top tier franchise QB, then they will have screwed the pooch again -- and any QB's success is pretty tightly linked to OL success, particularly LT. Ask Eli Manning about that.

Ah, the "players are greedy and selfish and want out of Buffalo" Bills apologists heard from early on.

Totally agree. I'm not at all surprised that the Bills were the overwhelming choice of the FO commentators to get the #1 pick in 2019, primarily because of the QBs and the OL. The Bills will be especially vulnerable to teams with strong pass rushes or explosive offenses, and they will a gauntlet of nasty pass rushes and/or explosive offenses pretty much all season: @Ravens, Chargers, @Vikings, @Packers, @Texans, Patriots, Bears, Jags, Lions, and @Patriots. The only possible victims seem to be the Titans, @Colts, @Jets, @Dolphins, Jets, and Dolphins. The strongest reason that I can give for the Bills not going 0-16 is that it's hard to do (I think it's only been done twice since the merger in 1970).

TBF it really doesn't matter. Dawkins struggled. Then he was injured for the third preseason game. Meanwhile, his linemates got beat like drums in game 3 until Cinci put in their second/third/fourth stringers, and weren't impressive against scrubs. The starting defense got ripped by Cinci's first stringers in game 3. I can see fans pretending poor performances in preseason don't matter but bravado by players in the face of such poor play is simply whistling past the graveyard. Since when is it "trolling" to point out facts? The OL play stunk against both Cleveland's and Cinci's first team defenses. Both McCarron and Allen were forced from the game. McCarron injured his collar bone while Allen banged his head on the turf complements of the Browns' and Cinci's pass rush. Did you watch those games? McCarron was getting dumped or scrambling all the time he was in there. The same with Allen in the first half against Cinci. What has been Beane and McDermott's response to the loss of Wood and Incognito? Bringing in a FA OC who couldn't even beat out Wood's backup plus adding a bunch of other scrub FAs who likely wouldn't make most NFL rosters. Trading away the team's veteran LT after letting the third string LT, Henderson, walk in FA. The Bills finally got around to drafting an OLer in the 5th round of the draft. Obviously, the OL was not any kind of priority. What was Dick Jauron's response to the Bills trading away Jason Peters in 2009? Jauron tried to force RT Langston Walker to play LT, and he promptly "retired". I think he came back to play for the Raiders later that season. At least in 2009 the Bills spent some draft capital on the OL, drafting Wood at the end of the first round and Andy Levitre in the 2nd or 3rd round .... .... and I think I should change my comparison of McDermott and Jauron: McDermott values/cares about the OL even less than Jauron did, something that I thought was impossible. The Bills went 5-11 that season, and Jauron was fired before the half way point IIRC.

McDermott's response to losing both Wood and Incognito quite suddenly in the off-season reminds me of nothing so much as Dick Jauron's response to the Bills trading Jason Peters in 2009: denial. That worked out well.

Poor OL play got AJ McCarren hurt in game 2. Poor OL play nearly got Josh Allen sidelined indefinitely with a concussion in game 3. The OL played so poorly in both games that McDermott played the starters longer than he had originally intended. How could the team watch game film and not see that they were not playing well?

IIRC, the last time Dawkins played in the preseason, he got embarrassed by Miles Garrett. The team's performance on the field is exactly what inspired the Bills "NFL-long" Super Bowl odds.

I totally agree on your points about Brandon and Ryan. I too hope that they learned from their mistakes but I have a niggling suspicion that Beane is a Russ Brandon "money ball" disciple. The way the Bills have handled the re-signing (or lack of) of the good young vets they've developed hasn't changed a bit from the way they were handled during the Brandon regime, and allowing the HC to dictate to the GM about personnel is exactly what the Bills have done since Russ Brandon took over the football team in 2006. The same with the draft. The difference between 2017 (Brandon/Whaley) vs 2018 (Beane/McDermott) in personnel matters is the quality of the talent evaluation and the wheeling dealing. The underlying philosophy of replacing young vets due for big days with draft picks and lesser FAs continues.

For the 999th time, a team's preseason win-loss is irrelevant to their regular season performance. How a team plays in preseason -- the talent a team demonstrates, how discipline or undisciplined players are, and how the team executes plays, etc -- especially how the first teamers play -- are good indicators of what the team is likely to do in the regular season. That's especially true in the 3rd preseason game in which the Bills first teamers sucked. In fact, they got outplayed on both sides of the ball by Cinci's first and their second teamers.

White had an excellent rookie season, and is a valid success. Edmunds, however, hasn't even played a single NFL game yet, but his play in preseason suggests that he probably wouldn't be starting if the Bills had sent Preston Brown packing. He may eventually develop into a good MLB, but at this point, he's not proven to be good or bad.

Excuse me, Peterman had two starts, and he didn't finish either one. Joe Flacco is a 9 year starter with a Super Bowl win and Super Bowl MVP award plus numerous playoff appearances and playoff wins. McCoy is simply no longer mentioned in the same conversation of who is the best RB in the NFL. Just as Frank Gore, Adrian Peterson, and Marshawn Lynch are no longer considered elite. There are numerous younger backs who are better than McCoy at this point in his career. A RB doesn't have to be either elite or scrub, but you were the one who decided Collins was trash because he wasn't elite in your estimation.

The Bills have a starting QB who threw 5 INTs in the first half of his first and only start backed up by a rookie QB who's never started. The Bills have an excellent but aging RB who is no longer close to being elite. The Bills have 1 bonafide starting caliber WR and 1 older WR who would make some NFL squads, which probably can't be said about any of their other WRs at this time. They have no ability to stretch the field. The Bills have a decent TE contingent, including one who can catch the occasional pass. None are likely to be mistaken for Gronkowski. The Bills OL is made up of scrubs and backups, and plays like it: it sucks. Except for LT, none of the others are NFL-caliber. The Bills have a couple of big names signings on their DL that have been completely uninspiring. Their best DLer is at the end of his career. The Bills have good safeties and one good cornerback. The rest of the DBs, like most of the Bills team, are JAGs at best. The Bills special teams have a great placekicker in Hauschka but has their punter ever kicked in a regular season NFL game? If you think that the best the Ravens will do is 6 wins, then are you predicting the Bills to go 0-16? If you aren't, then you're delusional.

Well, that may be the meaning of the phrase, but I'm not sure it fits Peterman. Most reasonable people can be "Steady Eddies" or emotionally even keel if there's no pressure on them. Peterman's done that in preseason and in practice both last season and this one, too. However, he melted down -- panicked -- in the face of LA's pass rushers, so I'm not going to accept that he's "steady", "even keel", "reliable" until I see him play that way when he's under pressure.

The Bills have very little proven talent on their roster, which is why Ravens fans and the national media don't think much of them.

DTV is offering free NFL Sunday Ticket this Sunday. Channels 701-718 I believe.

I believe there was serious concern about this last season after the disaster in the Chargers game but luckily, McDermott managed to regain the locker room. After watching the performance of the Bills first teamers in the third preseason game, I'm concerned that the Bills have a serious morale problem again. There was something off with the starters in that game, almost as if they were going through the motions rather than giving their all. The 2nd and 3rd teamers were the ones who demonstrated effort and spirit. Sort of like the current occupant of the Oval Office.

I said 5% because I don't think even Peterman can duplicate his record performance. Maybe 4 in the same half, but 5 ...

I disagree. This is a perfect example of Bills cheerleaders using half-truths and untruths to exempt McDermott and Beane from responsibility for their actions by scapegoating individuals who are no longer with the Bills. McDermott and Beane chose to trade Dareus ($13.6 million), Glenn ($9.6 million), Taylor ($7.6 million), and Ragland ($1.2 million) without regard to the cap consequences, creating $32 million in dead cap money. They also chose to bring in Corey Coleman ($3.5 million) and AJ McCarron ($2.1 million) for essentially tryouts and send them both packing before the regular season even starts, resulting in $5.6 million in dead cap money. The bulk of the remainder of dead cap money goes to Eric Wood ($10.4 million) and Aaron Williams ($2.4 million), both of whom were forced to retire because of injury, for a total of $12.6 million. Retirements due to injuries can't be blamed on anybody. That's a total of $37.6 million of the Bills $53+ million dead cap money.

IOW, McDermott is the reincarnation of Dick Jauron only with better game day coaching skills.

Drew Brees never threw 5 INTs in a half in the NFL ... maybe in Pop Warner but not in the NFL.

My post wasn't about whether the players themselves are good or bad on the field, but rather the claims of some posters that the reason the Bills traded Watson and Glenn was primarily because they had injuries and intimating that McDermott and Beane didn't want players on the team that may have had injuries that took significant time to heal or were possibly chronic conditions. Obviously, from their actions, that's simply untrue.