SoTier

I would agree but it's not going to happen. There aren't all that many good OL candidates so I can't see getting more than 1, and that likely won't be with one of the firsts; QB and DL are most likely. Who did we get who was actually better than Fitzpatrick until Taylor was signed? Certainly not Orton. If Marrone had had Fitz, the Bills probably would have been 8-8 or 9-7 in 2013 and likely would have made the playoffs in 2014. Even with Fitzpatrick's TO tendencies, Marrone would have given him the kind of support he needed -- a strong D and a decent running game -- so that he'd wouldn't have to try to win games on his own. As for Taylor, nobody is saying to keep him forever. It makes sense to keep him for 2018 so that you can bring a rookie QB along slowly, but never fear, Taylor is due a bonus just after the start of the league year, so he will undoubtedly be released before then.

The Bills have made so many of what appear to be bizarre or contradictory decisions since they fired Ryan (no problem with that) that they seem to be taking their cues from the Keystone Cops of silent film fame. Much of what they've done seems to be irrational in a football sense.

IMO, a desire on the part of either the coaching staff or FO to distract fans from the defensive meltdowns against the Jests and Saints may very well have factored into the decision to start Peterman last week. If fans had only the defensive meltdown to consider, many more of them might start correlating that the Bills D went south along with Marcel Dareus while Jacksonville's rush D improved. Starting Peterman when they did just doesn't smell right. That's why the national media jumped all over it, and guys like Carucci came up with lame, far-fetched explainations for it. The fact is, if the Bills were 3-6 and they started Peterman, nobody would bat an eye but they were 5-4 and sitting in a playoff position. That's what smells like dead fish that's been sitting at the end of the dock in the sun for three days, especially when Peterman played so poorly. He's a rookie who probably makes a lot more mistakes than Humber simply because rookies tend to do that.

Lack of talent isn't a lack of mental toughness; it's not being fast enough, strong enough, smart enough etc. Neither is pressing/over-compensating to make up for lack of success nor attempting to cover for teammates who aren't good enough for the roles they've been assigned. It's on the coaches to put players into the best situations to succeed, and that usually requires a change in scheme and a major infusion of talent. Neither seems likely to happen.

This is a much more like scenario than that the Bills draft a franchise QB and everything is rainbows and unicorns all the way to the Lombardy Trophy, especially if McDermott and Beane are still around.

Thanks for the article. Yes, but Peterman isn't a smaller QB like Taylor or a skinny (he might have been called slight) kid like Tom Brady was when he was drafted or a kid that got caught up in some kind of power struggle at his school like Tony Romo who wasn't even drafted. Being "pro ready"" is not a good reason to gamble on a fifth round QB because a team should be drafting for potential. I totally agree that it would be wisest for the Bills to keep Taylor in 2018, but I just don't see it happening. Whether they get rid of him to save money or to placate the anti-Taylor contingent of vociferous fans or to pave the way for a yet-to-be-drafted first round QB, he's history just like Fitzpatrick was in 2013. It will undoubtedly be better for Tyrod. I doubt it will be better for the Bills or their fans in 2018 but then it's most definitely "the Bills way".

Ummm... when fans say "draft a QB", they've mean in the first round not in the fifth. In this day and age, QBs who fall below the second round generally lack significant physical attributes to be NFL QBs, primarily NFL arm and/or height. Both Russell Wilson and Kirk Cousins have NFL arms, but Wilson is short and Cousins is slight (small framed) so they were both considered risks. If they had been more prototypical size, they'd have both gone in the first. Even going to unimportant football schools doesn't necessarily mean real prospects can hide from the scouts: Joe Flacco is from Delaware and Carson Wentz from North Dakota State.

Have they actually watched the Bills play the last three games, especially on defense?

And he's not going to get the players for positions McDermott wants just like Whaley did? Get a clue: Beane is not an independent GM here. He's not only subservient to higher ups in the FO, he's subservient to the HC. That's what a figurehead is.

I was willing to give McDermott and Beane the benefit of the doubt early on although I remained skeptical of what they claimed they were doing. I have always viewed Beane as a figurehead GM who marches to orders delivered by Russ Brandon or one of his bean counter surrogates just like Whaley did. Some posters get really bent out of shape when I say many of the Bills roster moves are motivated by cutting player payroll but making personnel moves to save real $ -- NOT necessarily cap $ -- has been a recurring theme on Bills teams for the entire length of the drought. The Bills have spent the last seventeen years developing some pretty good players through the draft and as UDFAs and then letting them walk away in FA rather than pay them or getting skinned in trades because of their desperation to get rid of players. That was standard operating procedure under Wilson's ownership and it seems to be continuing exactly the same under the Pegulas: draft a first round DB -- develop him into a Pro Bowler -- let him walk in FA -- draft another first round DB to take his place. Plain and simple, I don't think this is "roster building" with the purpose of building a winning team in the future but simply to insure that the bottom line stays healthy. That's very cynical, but I've been a Bills fan since 1963, so I can't help myself. It's just the same manure that OBD has been shoveling and Bills have been accepting for 17 years. When the Bills draft their "future franchise QB" in the first round in 2018, the fans will get all excited and run to buy/renew their season tix ... just like they did when the Bills signed Terrell Owens in 2009 and Mario Williams in 2012.

What makes you say that? Peterman has shown nothing to indicate that he's starting QB material. That he looked decent against the Saints 2nd and 3rd stringers only proves that he can play against scrubs. His supposed readiness for the NFL seems to have been the product of the wishful thinking of the most vociferous Tyrod Taylor haters. It looks to me that nobody on the Bills coaching staff bothered much with Peterman at all since TC until McDermott decided he'd start last Sunday. Then he was crammed full of plays for a game plan totally unsuitable for a rookie QB in his first start ... and fed to the wolves. The #2 QB on the roster -- the starter's backup -- should at least get a smidgen of the coaching staff's attention, and if the Bills truly thought he was a possible future starter, one would think that some coach would work with him! But hey, McDermott is a coaching genius and Beane is a great GM and they've got this great plan to win a Super Bowl so all us dumb stupid fans who keep pointing out that the emperors are strutting around bare-arsed should just shut up and find other teams to support. I have no doubt that Taylor is gone before next season but if the Bills don't draft a QB in the first or second round, then they'll bring in another veteran as a starter.

Don't confuse the haters with facts FCOL!

Those teams may be bad but they seem to be trying to win. I'm not sure that that's true of the Bills any more although earlier in the season they certainly did. A team that expects to get whipped, gets whipped, and I think that's where the Bills are. IMO, the Dareus trade had a huge psychologically negative impact on the Bills D, far more than missing his physical presence. Benching Taylor may have had a lesser though similar effect on the offense.

Since a poster seemed to think the Bills got so much for the guys who are gone, I thought I'd check them out ... what the Bills got and didn't get. Thanks to the OP for his work on the original list. The reality is that the guys who weren't busts (and the Bills are about average on busts with the rest of the NFL) mostly left in FA and the Bills got nothing for them. IMO, they only had 2 positive trades: Sheppard for Hughes and Alonso for McCoy. Keep in mind that these are only draft picks from rounds 1-3 and not other good/decent players that the Bills acquired and then sent packing like Zach Brown, Mike Gillislee, Chris Hogan, Nigel Bradham, and many others making themselves useful on likely playoff teams. 2009 1 Aaron Maybin – GONE - BUST 2009 1 Eric Wood – Starter 2009 2 Jairus Byrd – GONE 2009 2 Andy Levitre – GONE - ATLANTA - starter 2010 1 C.J. Spiller – GONE - retired I think 2010 2 Torell Troup – GONE - injury 2010 3 Alex Carrington – GONE 2011 1 Marcell Dareus – GONE - JAX - 2018 6th round pick, possibly 5th (late) 2011 2 Aaron Williams – GONE - injury 2011 3 Kelvin Sheppard – GONE - Jerry Hughes 2012 1 Stephon Gilmore – GONE - NE - starter 2012 2 Cordy Glenn – Starter 2012 3 T.J. Graham – GONE - BUST 2013 1 EJ Manuel – GONE - BUST - OAKLAND 2013 2 Robert Woods – GONE - LAR - starter 2013 2 Kiko Alonso – GONE - MIAMI - starter - Shady McCoy 2013 3 Marquise Goodwin – GONE - 49ERS - starter 2014 1 Sammy Watkins – GONE - LAR - starter - 2018 2nd round pick (late) + EJ Gaines 2014 2 Cyrus Kouandjio – GONE - back up -- not sure what team 2014 3 Preston Brown – Starter 2015 1 NONE 2015 2 Ronald Darby – GONE - PHILLY -starter, out with injury until last week when he had an INT - Jordan Matthews 2015 3 John Miller – NOT EVEN ACTIVE - he's still on the Bills; he backs up Vlad Ducasse at LG 2016 1 Shaq Lawson – Starter 2016 2 Reggie Ragland – GONE -KC 2019 4th 2016 3 Adolphus Washington – Starter

This is my take on the rest of the season. Either the Bills D keeps it close against KC or it's all over except to speculate whether McDermott gets fired during the off season or sometime next season.

I agree he's a top QB, but in reality, he's done squat on that team for years except roll up passing stats and throw up untimely INTs when his team needed TDs. SD hasn't made the playoffs since 2009 when they snuck in as the 2nd WC at 9-7 when they finished 3rd in the AFCW. They won 5 games in 2016 and 4 games in 2015. Moral of the story: a "franchise QB" is not going to make a difference if the coaching sucks any more than it's going to make a big difference if the talent's not there.

TBD's resident genius has spoken! In order to progress, a 7-9 Bills team that was 8-8 the year before needs to be stripped of its talent so that its HC and his pet GM can fill the team with players that "buy into" taking the team back to the future circa 1985. That, according to Mr Brilliance here, is supposed to be progress although the the team is playing infinitely worse now than it was at the beginning of the season when it was at least competitive when it lost. It's "bold" and "forward looking". Uh-huh ... Meanwhile, a SD team that was 5-11 in 2016 and 4-12 in 2015 hires as their new HC a former Bills OC whom the Bills rejected. He took the players he inherited and has them all playing better, so that even when they've lost, they've been competitive, and as they've blossomed under Lynn's coaching, they're starting to win games instead of losing them by a couple of points. They're on a roll. They demolished the Bills in LA, and then they went to Dallas and demolished the Cowpies. They're getting better as the season progresses ... but according to Mr Brilliance, fans now questioning the Bills hiring McDermott over Lynn are "risk averse and backward looking". In the perverse universe Mr Brilliance occupies losing is better than winning. Well, with McDermott and Beane in charge, maybe even Mr Brilliance will get his fill.

^^^ I'm SO crushed by your insult! BOO HOO! it doesn't change the fact that McDermott and Beane suck.

There might be something to your idea, OP. There were certainly negative vibes in the media -- including radio call-in shows and electronic media like this MB -- about Watkins, Dareus, and Taylor, and two of them were traded while Taylor was benched. Fans whined about Taylor being too conservative, so they had Peterman try to throw downfield like he was a veteran QB.

I got a better idea: get rid of McDermott and Beane.

37-21, 46-10, and 54-24 constitute the worst three game span in the Bills history. It constitutes a collapse, and it will be a moral victory for the Bills if they can at least be competitive against the Chiefs and Pats in the next two games. Don't bet more than you'd like to lose on them doing that, though.

This was a "middling" team last season. McDermott and Beane have fixed that. They've turned it into an expansion team. Maybe they win 1 more but I wouldn't bet money on it.

NFL Sunday Ticket so I can watch decent teams play good football rather than get stuck watching the Bills get butt-whooped with regularity ...

Belichick never coached a team that got butt-whipped as badly as consistently as McDermott's Bills, either. Hey, ya never can tell ... he might be running last, but if there's a late race caution and everybody's gotta pit for gas but him so they're all a lap down ... It must be something in the water in Allegany County ...

Who the hell cares what media "draft experts" claim within a few hours or days of the NFL draft? Their evaluations signify nothing because they are only based on criteria that are important to media "draft experts" and fans who buy what they're selling. The real proof of how good or bad a team's draft is depends upon how well the draftees actually play on the field in games. In the Bills case, through 10 games, individually and as a group, they are certainly not outstanding. White has played decently for a rookie but Jones hasn't been good at all. That doesn't mean he won't turn out to be a good WR but he's not there yet. Dawkins has had good games and bad games, but many teams would have had him sit for while, perhaps the entire season. White and Jones have been starters simply because Stephon Gilmore and all of the Bills starting WRs left either in FA or by trade. Dawkins has played LT when Glenn's not been able to go but Jordan Mills has started every game at RT. Milano and Peterman are 5th rounders and Vallejo is a 6th rounder. McDermott (the player) was a 6th round pick cut by NE. Elston, Ferguson, Lacey, Towbridge, and Yarbrough are all UDFAs. Milano and Yarbrough have played some. We saw last week that Peterman is not nearly as "NFL ready" as his gushing fanboys claimed. The rest have only played ST I believe although they may very well have gotten in on a few regular snaps. I think I've seen Vallejo in on some regular snaps, too. Feel free to try to prove that the Bills' rookies are significantly better than other teams' rookies if you want.