SoTier

The bolded part is what I'm leery of with Foles, too. DCs as well as many veteran defenders build up "books" on QBs based on film study. The more they see of a QB in a specific offense, the more likely they are to figure out how to stop him. With top QBs, that's not all that much of a problem because they're so good, but with lesser QBs, it becomes a problem because they're more limited. The "book" on Tyrod Taylor is to confine him to the pocket and make him throw the ball to his check down receivers by covering his wide outs because he won't throw throw them open -- and the Bills didn't have any WRs who could get separation this past season. Foles has very real limits to his game because he did struggle the second year in Philly as well as in his other stops. My guess is that if the Pats' defense could have taken away the RPOs, Foles wouldn't have looked nearly so good ... but Philly's great OL prevented that ... at least in the short term. If Belichick had more time and film, he probably would have figured out how to significantly limit Foles' effectiveness.

Always the first to come to the defense of your buds, eh?

That's what happens when the grammatically-impaired don't bother with capitalization or other "niceties" of the English language -- it can change the meaning of the sentence entirely. I had to read the sentence twice before I realized he meant Tre White.

So, after squeaking into the playoffs as a WC with a 9-7 record after 17 years of missing them, the Bills should declare 2017 a "success" and immediately begin rebuiliding? Seriously? One wildcard game does NOT make a dynasty any more than a couple of good games does NOT make a QB's career. I agree with Bandit27. The Bills need to have a good draft, and they have enough picks to do that. They also need to be smart about their own vets, including keeping the ones that they can't truly upgrade with reasonable FA acquisitions, something the Bills have repeatedly failed to do over the years. IMO, the OL needs to be a priority on the offensive side since all offensive success is dependent upon that. They need to draft the best C or OG they can, hopefully on Day 1 but no later than Day 2. Philly's OL is considered one of the very best if not the best OL in the NFL, and they played like it on Sunday night. I'm not sure that Foles was even knocked down all game. If a QB the Bills truly like falls to them, I'm not opposed to them taking him, but I surely don't want them trading up to take the fourth or fifth best QB prospect or taking a QB at 21 or 22 simply to say they took a QB. They've tried both those routes before and got nothing but manure for their trouble. They have too many holes to fill to waste high draft picks on a QB who's ceiling is "backup QB". They can draft one of those on Day 2 or Day 3 if they want somebody better than Peterman (which I hope they do but they have bigger needs right now, so I wouldn't be upset if they didn't). The reality is that cutting Taylor will cost $8+ million in dead cap money, so that has to be figured into the cost of any FA QB the Bills consider. That seems likely to make Kirk Cousins prohibitively expensive for the Bills, even if Cousins passed on much more QB friendly situations in Denver or Minnesota to consider the Bills. Keenum is probably an upgrade but I can't see Minnesota letting him walk while keeping Bradford and Bridgewater with their very questionable knees. Most of the other potential FA QBs being mentioned are career backups, and not necessarily very good ones. IMO, unless they can truly upgrade the QB position through FA, which will cost big bucks, the Bills need to bite the bullet, keep Taylor even if they draft a first round QB, and give him a system that fits his talents better as well as a better WR corps. Spend the $ on the WRs, OLers, and a better RB than Tolbert. On defense, the Bills need to upgrade DT and LB. Another edge rusher would be nice, too. It generally takes 3-4 years to develop a DT, so FA might be a better bet than the draft unless there's a real stud available. Unfortunately, FA DTs are expensive, so wasting $$ on a FA QB who's not better than Taylor likely means that the Bills can't add a DT or edge rusher. LBs tend to be easier to find and develop, so the Bills should probably look to the draft to upgrade that position. The good news about the draft is that the Bills have so many holes that taking "best player available" when their turns come should be a no brainer.

A lot of Foles' success in the playoffs is because Pederson and his OC have modified the Eagles offense to fit what Foles does best as well as Doug Pederson's aggressive play calling. With a more conservative minded HC and an OC less willing to change to fit his QB, my guess is that Foles would struggle.

Exactly this. IMO, the Bills QB position doesn't need to be fixed but upgraded. Cleveland and Denver are teams that need to fix their QB situations. If the Bills can't get a better QB than Taylor in FA, then they need to keep him. Cousins would be an upgrade. If Bradford were healthy and could stay that way, he would be, too, but staying healthy has been problematic for him since he was drafted. Keenum might be, but I'm thinking he doesn't leave Minnesota unless the Vikings sign Cousins. Who else is there on the FA market? Fitzpatrick and McKown might be available. Matt Moore, Chad Henne, Derek Anderson have been mentioned. Keep in mind that cutting Taylor will result in an $8+ million cap hit in 2018, which likely puts Cousins out of range and makes both Bradford and Keenum cost about the same against the cap as keeping Taylor. Taylor/Cousins/Bradford/Keenum plus a first round QB would be an upgrade. Any of these same QBs plus a second round QB might be an upgrade if the rookie turned out to be at least a competent backup. A QB like Moore, Henne, or Anderson plus a first round QB would only be an upgrade if the rookie was good enough to win the starting job in TC.

Sorry, dudes, but when trashy QBs like Anderson, Moore or Henne are being talked about as possible Bills starters as "bridge QBs", Tyrod Taylor is looking better and better. The FA QB market is always slim pickin's because few teams let good ones, even good backups, leave. If the Bills cut Taylor and don't sign Cousins, they are simply reprising 2013 when they chose to save current $$ over winning football games either now or in the future.

The obvious thing is that you rewrite history to fit your own prejudices.

Calling Foles a "bridge QB" pre-supposes he's actually good enough to be a regular starting QB, which he hasn't demonstrated that he can be since his sophomore season.

If Mayfield falls, it's likely because he's shorter than desired, and most GMs like tall QBs. Of all the faults a first round QB can have, that's probably the one that's least important as both Drew Brees and Russell Wilson have proven.

If Cousins goes to Jax (which I don't think will happen), then that makes Bortles available. If Miami takes a first round QB, it's likely they'll cut/trade Tannehill to save some $$.

Thanks. I thought it might be a Matt ... either Cassel or Flynn.

Y'know you're old when you remember when most of these guys were rookies!

Why are you surprised? He's not even a low end starter on a par with McKown or Fitzpatrick, and he's certainly not nearly as good as Tyrod Taylor. Except for one season in Cleveland 10 years ago, Anderson sucked in most of his other starting appearances, and he has only started 4 games since 2010. In 2016 for Carolina, Anderson started 2 games in which he threw 2 TDs and 5 INTs. Overall in his career, he's thrown 60 TDs and 60 INTs with 29 TDs and 19 INTs coming in his 2006 season. I'd hardly consider him a "quality backup" to "mentor" a rookie, and he's not even in the conversation when discussing possible starting QBs.

Taylor was signed when the Bills had Manuel and another QB (don't remember who it was) on the roster who were listed ahead of him on the depth chart. He outplayed them both and won the starting job in the preseason. He wasn't signed with the intention of his being the starting QB over the QBs the Bills already had.

It's crazy all right. There hasn't been 6 QBs taken in the first round since the legendary class of 1983 with Elway, Kelly, and Marino. The only class since then that has had 5 QBs was 1999 which yielded McNabb and Culpepper and 3 busts. Four QBs were taken in the first round five times, yielding all of 7 QBs whom most knowledgeable fans would consider "franchise QBs" of various levels. 1983 - John Elway, Todd Blackledge, Jim Kelly, Tony Eason, Ken O'Brien, Dan Marino 1987 - Vinnie Testaverde, Kelly Stoufer, Chris Miller, and Jim Harbaugh 1999 - Tim Couch, Donovan McNabb, Akili Smith, Daunte Culpepper, Cade McNown 2003 - Carson Palmer, Byron Leftwich, Kyle Boller, Rex Grossman 2004 - Eli Manning, Phillip Rivers, Ben Roethlisberger, JP Losman 2011 - Cam Newton, Jake Locker, Blaine Gabbert, Christian Ponder 2012 - Andrew Luck, Robert Griffin III, Ryan Tannehill, Brandon Weeden With the notable exceptions of 1983 and 2004, large QB draft classes don't yield more successful QBs than do QB draft classes with only 1, 2 or 3 first round QBs. Of the 31 QBs taken in these large draft classes, only 13 were successful, including several whom Bills fans would likely have been disappointed with if they'd played for the Bills. The number of QBs in the class is irrelevant. What there has to be is one QB available that the Bills really, really like because they think he's going to be a top QB, not because they want to placate the fans or because they think they need a QB better than the one they have. PS: that none of the QBs in 2018 stands out enough to be the consensus #1 pick says to me that this QB class isn't all that great. I no longer think that Taylor can be "something special" but I think he can be a serviceable starting QB for 2018, especially if the Bills draft a first or second round QB for the future.

If Arians was such a great judge of QBs coming out of college, why didn't he ever find one for his own team? Arians became the Cards' HC in 2013, and since that time, the Cards have drafted exactly 1 QB: Logan Thomas in the fourth round in 2014 despite the fact that the Cards could have taken Teddy Bridgewater, Derek Carr or Jimmy Garoppolo in 2014 and that Carson Palmer had been in the league for more than 10 years at that time, and has been more susceptible to serious injuries than many other QBs. Sometimes there's no good QBs available when a team needs one, but there were better candidates than Thomas available in 2014, and Cards passed on them. Maybe Arians didn't have a lot of input in whom the Cards drafted, but I wouldn't have a lot of faith in Arians' evaluation of collegiate QBs based on his being a HC. Not all good HCs are good talent evaluators, especially when judging players playing in systems different from the ones they're familiar with.

I loved Mangold when he came out of college (I think the Bills traded back into the first round to take John McCargo with Mangold still available) but I think that ship has sailed. The Bills need to draft a young center, even with one of their first rounders if there's a really good one available. Groy and a Day 1 or Day 2 rookie > Groy and Mangold for 2018 ... and hopefully for the future.

Yeah, and Rob Johnson and Matt Flynn both looked great in a single game ... if I had a $1 for every crappy QB in the last 25 years who looked good for a quarter or even an entire game and then sucked when given a chance to be a regular starter, I could have retired a decade earlier.

Realistically, good QBs seldom hit FA. Mostly they're back ups, and not necessarily good ones. Cousins is the best FA QB since Peyton was released by Indy. Before that, the best QB to hit FA was Brees. However much some fans may not like it, Taylor may be the best the Bills can do for a veteran QB. Cousins is the only likely FA who would be better, and he's going to command big $$$. Bradford would be better but how long are his gimpy knees going to hold up? The preseason? Half a season? One game? Both Glennon and McKown are career backups. Cutting Taylor and bringing in McCarron is the definition of cutting off your nose to spite your face. Taylor is not "the answer" but he's certainly better than McCarron. Maybe the Bills can bring back Thad Lewis ...

In case you don't realize it, the Bills don't have enough draft picks in the entire 2018 draft to fill all the holes they've created, and that's supposing that they were to hit on every pick, including Day 3 picks, which means they'd have to get replacements in FA, which likely would eat up all the "savings" from jettisoning all those players. Just replacing Taylor would likely cost $10 million for somebody no better plus a significant cap hit, so there'd actually be little savings. Of course, if your aim is for the Bills to actually tank in 2018, your "plan" is probably perfect. A team without a starting QB and an OL isn't likely to win many games. Bull manure. What makes you think that making the playoffs won't make the Pegulas expect more and continuing improvement? Moreover, gutting the team would undermine McDermott's entire "trust the process" mantra with the remaining players. Exactly right. PFF's algorithm for grading OLers has logical flaws, primarily that they assume they can figure out the blocking assignments from film when they actually can't unless they know exactly what play was called and exactly how it was drawn up so they know the blocking assignments. What's incongruous about PFF's grades is that with these good grades from PFF the Bills OL should have played significantly better on a regular basis than it did. The Bills OL didn't play nearly as well as it had in 2016. Famous last words.

Shouldn't Peterman have already worked on his arm strength and velocity if he harbored thoughts of playing in the NFL? Sorry, but even though the Bills made the playoffs in 2017, there's no proof that "the process the Bill's are trying to get the team better" actually works. Neither McDermott nor Beane have built a successful team on their own; they've only been part of successful teams built by others. Certainly Peterman's poor performance doesn't inspire confidence in Team McBean.

Taylor ran a "pro offense" in 2015 and 2016 when the Bills had an OC who gave the Bills a "pro offense". The "primitive passing offense" was courtesy of Dennison's failings as well as the stupid personnel decisions made by the Bills FO in shipping out all of the Bills starting WRs from 2015 and 2016 as well as letting Gillislee leave, too.

POINT. SET. MATCH. I simply don't understand why so many fans act as if this kid is something more than what he's shown. The guy was a fifth round draft pick for the very basic reason that he lacks most of the physical traits necessary for an NFL QB, and there's no way that he's going to change his arm strength or other physical shortcomings. His ceiling has always been modest backup at best, and he hasn't demonstrated that he's likely to be even that good.

I think it all depends upon which college QB the Bills like in the draft -- if they like any of them enough to consider trading up -- and if the team thinks it's possible to get to him. In this case, the Bills won't consider Cousins. If they don't like any of the college QBs or if they don't think they can get to him, then maybe Cousins is in play -- if Washington lets him finally walk.