SoTier

My point is that talent is not necessarily the difference between "a very good team" and a "Super Bowl team". Talent, injuries and coaching are important factors, but so is luck, both good and bad. Most SB winners "catch lightning in a bottle" at least once in their road to a Lombardi.

The team with the most talent frequently doesn't win the Super Bowl -- or even get to the Super Bowl. Injuries derailed the Lions last season in the divisional round in the NFC. Turnovers in the divisional round and a dropped 2 point conversion by an All Pro TE put the Ravens on the sidelines for the AFC Championship.

It seems to be found in significantly higher frequency among NFL WRs than in the general population of NFL football players. 😁

NOTHING about winning a Super Bowl is ever guaranteed (ie, 100%), and almost every SB win has some element of "catching lightning in a bottle". The undefeated Patriots rolled into Super Bowl XLII against the Giants and were leading 14-10 with less than 2 minutes to play. David Tyree, a career JAG, caught an Eli Manning pass off his helmet to set up the winning score, AND the old Dolphin vets were able to pop the cork on their champagne. The Atlanta Falcons were up 28-3 in the middle of the third quarter of Super Bowl LI and lost the game 34-28 as the Pats got their act together and made a furious comeback to get the game to OT.

The Bills didn't lack the "offensive firepower to overwhelm the Chiefs". They lacked the defensive talent to stop the Chiefs. The Chiefs scored more points in the 2024 AFC Championship than they scored in any other game in 2024 because the Bills defense wasn't good enough to stop a team that averaged 22.6 points per game from scoring 29 points. As for creating "a Josh-centered team", what could be more "Josh-centered" than providing him with a strong offensive line plus an excellent running game. He's not running for his life and he can play "hero ball" strategically rather than out of necessity?

I have a Ryobi 20 inch battery operated mower that I bought last year to replace my 10/15 year old behemoth self propelled gas mower. Love the new little mower. I have a large lot but I use a rider on most of it. The walk behind mower is to do the front tree lawn (grassy area between the street and sidewalk), the grassy paths through the front and side yard flower beds, and to do clean up around the raised beds in the veggie garden. I can do it all on a single charge.

It was a move worthy of the Bills ex-GM/evil genius Russ Brandon, made to put butts in the seats and the suites with little regard of its impact on the team on the field. Hunter is a great talent, but the draft capital the Jags gave up to get him should only be spent on a franchise QB prospect, not a WR or a WR/part-time CB prospect.

I think it's part of their psyches. It's why some very fast young football players become WRs while other just as fast young football players become DBs. And it seems like the more talented a WR is, the more likely he is to have be a self-absorbed, spoiled diva.

This thread is supposed to be about how bad the Bills WRs are as a group. The last time I looked, Bowers isn't a WR, so he doesn't count. I want to see Mahomes/Lamar/Burrow and any other QB the Bills play on their way to a Lombardi sacked, hurried, and running for his life because his receivers struggle to beat our secondary, enabling our pass rushers to get home. If the Bills defense had held the Chiefs to their average points per game in the 2024 AFCCG (22.6), there would have been no need for any final drive heroics by the Bills offense. The pass rushers couldn't get to Mahomes because his receivers were beating our DBs almost from the get-go.

The allegations stem from incidents that occurred when Tucker was a young player, 10 plus years ago IIRC, years before Deshaun Watson entered the NFL.

I don't disagree that the Bills should draft WRs going forward, but I don't think that they should necessarily a) invest in superstar WRs via FA or trade b) prioritize WRs in the draft to the point that they use too many resources to move up (as I think the Jags did in trading to draft Hunter in this past draft) or pass on a much more likely to succeed prospect also at a position of need. The 2025 draft was not one for the Bills to grab another WR after they took one last season in the 2nd round, especially given that the Bills need to improve their defense coincided with a great draft for defensive players.

I think that you see the relationship between Beane and McDermott as much more adversarial than it probably is. Beane and McDermott are friends and their friendship goes back to their early days together at Carolina. I also think their philosophies on team building are very similar, too. I think that the use of "McBeane" by some posters isn't far off the mark in describing how the Bills select talent. They collaborate not compete.

Every QB, whether he's a unicorn or not, requires protection and targets. However, that protection and those targets don't necessarily have to be just OL and just WRs. Bills TEs and RBs block well, and both were integral parts of Brady's offense last season, and a big reason that the Bills were successful on offense in 2024. Cook breaking a long run is the equivalent of a WR catching a long pass. The same with Kincaid or Knox making crucial catches ... and frequently WRs, especially the all-world types that some are pining for ... are notoriously poor blockers. It's obvious that you are going to die on this hill of "we're doomed to lose in the playoffs because we don't have great WRs". That's your choice. I happen to believe that "defense wins championships" is a much higher hill, and it's always better to have the higher ground.

This is what I thought, too. It's way things usually go. Some of the views of the best and worst FA signings were interesting.

Your premise that poor WR play led to the Ravens and Texans losses is simply incorrect. In the Ravens game, while the offense was ineffective, the defense was also guilty of playing crappy. Henry ran 88 yards on the Ravens' first play from scrimmage for a TD, and that essentially set the tone for the rest of the game. Both sides of the ball sucked. In the Houston game, the Bills defense gave up 26 yards and a TD on 2 rushes by Cam Akers and then a 67 yard TD pass to Nico Collins in the first quarter. After that the Bills defense tightened up and gave up only 3 FGs of 47, 50, and 59 yards the rest of the way with the 59 yarder being the game winner with 2 seconds left. The defense was missing Rapp (replaced by rookie Cole Bishop) and Shakir was out on the offense. Allen had one of his worse days as a pro (9/30/131,1,0), but he didn't just miss WRs, and he did hit Coleman for a 49-yard TD pass. The Houston game could hardly be called an indictment of the Bills WRs since their most productive WR was out and their rookie caught a bomb for a TD.

A "big competition" can take place even if the competitors aren't very good.

If you think about it, getting drafted by an NFL team is a really awesome accomplishment. Approximately 77,000 college students play football in 774 4-year colleges and 123 junior colleges annually. If you assume that about 1/4 of those are eligible for the NFL draft, that's about 19,000 football players. The NFL selects about 250 of those, or about 1.4%.

Using hulled sunflower seeds will significantly reduce waste ... which should reduce the rodent population. Also, don't store your bird seed in your house or even in an attached garage if you can avoid it. The only time I ever had a mouse in my house that wasn't brought in half dead by one of my cats was the winter that I stored my bird seed on my enclosed back porch. I moved the seed barrel back to my detached garage, a trap under the sink got the mouse, and no more rodents in the house since, although my current cat occasionally brings in a not-quite-dead chipmunk from the overgrown yard across the street. If you don't have a detached garage or a garden shed to store seed, keeping seed in metal containers (hungry mice, chipmunks and squirrels can gnaw through plastic) and sweeping up any seed that falls on floor should limit the rodents, too.

I think that the Jags had the stupidest draft: to move up to #2 plus a 4th rounder (#106) and a 6th rounder (#200), they gave up #5, their second round pick (#36) and their fourth (#126) plus their 2026 first rounder ... to draft a WR/DB, Travis Hunter. I don't care if Hunter is superman, trading that much draft capital for anything but a top rated QB prospect is stupid. Trevor Lawrence is in the final year of his rookie contract, so the Jags seriously need to decide if he's worth a second contract, and so far, he hasn't lived up to his #1 pick status, regressing since his sophomore season when he looked really good. In 10 games in 2024, he threw for 2045 yards, 11 TDs, and 7 INTs. I think that getting Lawrence another target is a good move, but they paid way too much for Hunter. This move smells of something done to placate the fan base and boost attendance. I don't know if every team without a top QB "should do the same thing", but I can't criticize the Browns for their draft moves at all. They needed a QB but after Ward was gone, who was there really at #2 or #5? Instead, they acquired a second first rounder for 2026 with the hope that if the QBs in 2026 are significantly better, they have the ammo to move up to get one. Then they got premier DT prospect Mason Grant plus LB Carson Schwessinger, and RB Quinshon Judkins in their first 3 picks. They took a TE and a QB with their 2 3rd round picks. They took a flyer on Sanders in the 5th. Personally, by the end of the fourth round, I was wondering if the Bills should take a flyer on Shedeur to upgrade the backup QB position, even if it was highly unlikely that Beane would ever make that kind impromptu move.

One of the reasons that I started this third iteration of "Backyard Birding" is because I discovered a new birding "guide" last year: the Merlin Bird ID by Cornell Lab for your phone. It enables you to identify birds by their songs and calls, which can really expand the birds you can identify even if you are walking in a woodsy area where it's almost impossible to see birds. For example, I was walking in a part of the Jamestown Community College's campus called "The Hundred Acre Lot" and heard an unusual bird call (not a "song"). This area is heavily forested, and rather swampy in the area where i was walking. Using Merlin, I was able to identify the bird as a Wood Duck, a cavity nesting duck that is seldom seen unless you come across a nest sight. The Merlin app enables you to save the bird calls, so you can make a list of the birds you've encountered along with the date and time and the call. Moreover, you can find out more information about the birds you've seen or identified by call within the app. The Merlin app is free to download, although Cornell Lab will ask you join and/or donate.

This is my original post in my original topic on Backyard Birding started in 2020. It's aged well. A great hobby to start during this pandemic is "backyard birding" which is learning to identify the birds in and around your house and/or neighborhood. It's a great way to get yourself, your kids, your parents and/or grandparents interested in nature and science. It's inexpensive. It's not complicated. You don't even need a yard ... a neighborhood park or a cemetery or even a grassy median (like on Bidwell Parkway in Buffalo) will work. A window overlooking your neighbor's yard might even work. To get started, you need a guide to birds. I like the Audubon Society's Field Guide to North American Birds which I have been using since the 1980s. It's pocket size, comes with a plastic like cover, and has photos, maps, and info about each bird in it. Field Guide to Birds. It's less than $16. If you have a yard, you can buy a bird bath and set it up in a sunny spot that you can see from one or more windows or from a deck or porch. Even a cheap plastic one will work fine. In addition to seeing more birds, you may actually save some by providing water in dry spells. Remember to clean your bird bath regularly as when the birds use it, it will get messy. You can bring more birds into your yard -- and see more birds -- using bird feeders of various types -- and cost. Especially in the spring, migrating birds are towards the end of their travels and need ready sources of food. I feed primarily black oil sunflower seed plus suet cakes but I also feed a fruit/nut mix and peanuts. Don't buy those bird feed mixes sold in grocery stores as they have cheap filler seeds that birds won't eat and scatter all over the ground. Tractor Supply has a nice selection of feeders and bird seed. If you want some guidance, try the Wild Birds Unlimited on McKinley near the mall in Blasdell. There's also a WBU in Amherst ... on Transit I think. I have my tubular sunflower feeders out year around but that's not possible if you live in bear country. Raccoons can also be problems, especially in the summers when young ones go exploring. Many people have luck attracting hummingbirds with feeders or by hanging gaudy fuchsia pots on their porches. I haven't, probably because as a gardener, my hummers go for the hostas, bee balm, and trumpet vines planted in the yard. I also plant sunflowers -- generally by cleaning up the seeds/hulls from around the feeder poles and depositing that in a sunny spot along my side fence -- which attracts clouds of goldfinches when the sunflowers ripen. The great thing about backyard birding is that it's something you can do for the entire rest of your life, even when you are very old and not very mobile. My late step-mother, who suffered from emphysema, loved sitting on her back porch watching the hummers coming to her fuchsia plants or sitting at her kitchen table watching the chickadees and cardinals coming to her seed feeders.

There's lots of time to get a contract done, including after the 2025 season until the opening of FA. Drafting a RB would have been a shot over Cook's bow, a signal that the Bills aren't going to budge on the money. Beane wisely decided to keep communications/negotiations open going forward.

Consider that two teams with great/good QBs and great WRs but crappy OLs missed the playoffs in the AFC in 2024. They also didn't have particularly good defenses, either. Miami and Cincinatti put all their money into their QBs and WRs which has left the cupboard bare of talent for the rest of the team. The only team that seems to have beaten the cap restrictions enough to have a good QB, a great OL and great WRs alongside a good defense is the Eagles, but some day all those void years are going to have to be counted.

Beane hardly neglected Josh. They gave him a blocking TE and an OT prospect. The Bills are never going to be a pass first offense under Beane/McDermott/Brady. They want to be a diversified offense that can score in multiple ways from anywhere on the field. They don't want Allen to have to always have to be Super Man. They did pretty well in implementing that last season. Improving the defense will help Allen significantly more than adding a Day 3 WR.

IMO, the Bills traded up to take Losman pretty much for the same reason they signed Terrell Owen in 2009 and took Manuel in 2013: they wanted to excite the fan base in order to sell season tickets. What excites a fan base of a losing team better than providing a "savior" in terms of a first round QB or signing a future HOF WR? They could have had Losman in the 2nd or 3rd or better yet, they could have taken Matt Schaub in the 2nd who had a decent NFL career ... or they might have simply used the picks they gave up for Losman to draft OLers to protect their current QB at the time, Drew Bledsoe, and as you said, taken Rodgers in 2005. How about size and/or the ability to catch the ball? There are lots of speedy WRs who fall to Day 3 because they're smaller or they can't catch the ball consistently.