SoTier

It wasn't Wade's choice. It was Wilson's.

Absolutely the fans of the Buffalo Bills. All of 17 playoff teams and 21 winning seasons in 67 years. The longest active playoff drought in sports today.

Good post that pretty much sums up my views, too. I will add that the Bills also don't even have a functional running game at present. Unfortunately, I'm afraid it's likely to take at least three seasons of hopeless, mind-numbing losing to move OBD drive to admit they made a mistake with Beane/McDermott et al.

The Bills don't draft great, but they certainly draft about as well as most NFL teams, which ought to get them into the playoffs every once in a while at least. What the Bills don't do is retain their draftees, especially their Day 1 and Day 2 picks. Read 'em and weep: 2017 - 6 picks, 6 on team 2016 - 7 picks, 2 on team: 1st-Lawson, 3rd-Washington; on other teams: 2nd - Reggie Ragland (KC) 2015 - 6 picks, 2 on team: 3rd- Miller, 6th-O'Leary; on other teams: 2nd - Ronald Darby (Philly) 2014 - 7 picks, 1? on team : 3rd-Brown, not sure what's become of 7th-Seanntrel Henderson; on other teams: 1st -Sammy Watkins (LAR) 2013 - 8 picks, 0 on team: on other teams: 1st- EJ Manuel (Oak), 2nd- Robert Woods (LAR), 2nd-Kiko Alonso (Miami), 3rd- Marquise Goodwin (SF), 6th- Dustin Hopkins (Wash) 2012 - 9 picks, 1 on team: 2nd-Glenn - on other teams: 1st - Stephon Gilmore (Patriots), 4th-Nigel Bradham (Philly) 2011 - 9 picks, 0 on team - on other teams: 1st-Marcel Dareus (Jax), 3rd- Kelvin Sheppard (NYG), 4th-Da'Norris Searcy (Tenn) 2010 - 9 picks, 0 on team - on other teams: 6th-Arthur Moats (Steelers) Team chemistry does not mean fitting into a single rigid mold either in action or thought. People are not robots. They have different talents, different attitudes, and different temperaments. Any team, whether a football team or a project team in a work environment, functions best when everybody on the team wants the same goal, even if they approach achieving that goal differently. That's team chemistry because the whole becomes greater than the simple sum of its parts, and it's much more resilient in the face of trouble, primarily because team members tend to support one another. That doesn't seem to be what McDermott is building at all. He seems to simply be requiring his players to accept his philosophy because he's sure that he knows what's best. As long as his philosophy can produce wins, most players will accept his rules but if he can't sustain winning they'll stop believing in short order. The operative word is "if". You are assuming that Peterman is going to be successful which is highly unlikely for any green rookie QB starting his very first NFL game. It makes a wonderful fantasy but it's likely not happening given the serious deficiencies the Bills have.

Who's the President of the Buffalo Bills ... and the Buffalo Sabres?

Why would anyone willingly look for Savior Peterman?

Only in your dreams, petunia.

Agreed. I don't think McDermott would have said unequivocally that Taylor was his starter one day and then turn around and name Peterman. Coaches don't do that kind of thing unless somebody forces them to do it. He would have left the issue up in the air, but he didn't. Then he does a 180 turn. I'm sure that (his about face) will improve the atmosphere in the locker room 300%. (That's sarcasm for the literal minded.)

Ummm.... it was sarcasm.

Why should they watch the Bills when they've all of two winning seasons and 0 playoff appearances in this century? Hell, I bet there are a lot WNYers who used to care about the Bills who don't watch the Bills any more, either. Define "good". My guess is that he'll suck. Y'know why? Because he didn't get that many reps in TC first, and because he's mostly been the scout team QB since the season started second, and because he's going to have all of a week to practice plays that Taylor and the offense have been practicing together for months, but mostly because he's playing behind a crappy OL with a non-existent running game and a Division III receiving corps backed up by a defense that couldn't stop an old lady in a wheelchair until she'd rolled four yards beyond the LOS. De-nial isn't just a river in Egypt. It's apparently a creek just east of New Era Field that was once, long ago, called Smoke's Creek but has been rechristened in honor of all the gullible.

You gotta go higher up the food chain! Y'know ... the guys who hired McDermott and Beane! Beane and McDermott ask, "How high, sir?" when the suits at OBD say "Jump". My personal guess is that the decision to bench Taylor for Peterman didn't come from McDermott ... or even Beane unless he was just the messenger boy. Get a clue ... the Bills upper organization, which really didn't change when the ownership changed except to shed some of Ralph Wilson's family and friends in cushy positions, is dysfunctional, and as long as the Pegulas don't disturb them, the same old same old will continue ... and I don't expect the Pegulas to disturb them. Like McDaniels, McDermott is so used to working with all those talented, intense players that Carolina had collected, that he has no idea how to accommodate those who are maybe a little less dedicated to become football machines or who simply don't have the talent or who don't have the personality that he likes. He also shares the same rigidity that was a hallmark of Dick Jauron: my way or the highway.

Just like Fitzpatrick was supposedly done? Taylor is a better QB than Fitzpatrick by a mile, and some smart team will take advantage of his availability. If he ended up as the starter in Jax, Baltimore or Arizona, he likely joins the many other ex-Bills who regularly go to the post-season while the Bills QBs go home early. I totally agree. Time will tell on this, but I think that more than a few GMs will be anxiously waiting for the Bills to cut Taylor loose.

It's NEVER about this year with the Bills. They're ALWAYS about "the future" ... a "future" that hasn't gotten here yet in 12 years and isn't likely to get here any time soon.

One winning season in the last 12 years absolutely says there's no interest in winning on the part of OBD. You're all gung-ho for punishing the peons for the sins of the rulers, dude, but all the peons and even the overseers have all been changed out repeatedly, and nothing has changed. That says you need some drastic measure ... like holding the people responsible for hiring the overseers and peons accountable for failing to put more than a single winning team on the field in the last dozen years. Until that happens, the Bills are going to continue to suffer losing seasons ... but they will probably make lots of $$$.

FYI ... most QBs, including most first round QBs, are not long term successful ...

I doubt that Tyrod will remain unemployed long, and he may very well wind up in a far better situation than whatever sacrificial lamb of a rookie QB unfortunate to be tapped by the Bills in the draft finds himself in.

I'm done "trusting" the GMs and HCs OBD has been hiring for seventeen years since I've come to the conclusion that my dog could have managed to get the Bills to the playoffs at least once in all that time ... and his football knowledge is rather limited, his being a dog and having other priorities and all. Do you realize exactly how hard it is for a supposedly professional football team to manage to wallow in losing records for nearly two decades in the salary cap era? That takes real skill. It takes dedication to finding and nurturing on-field football incompetence. It especially takes real disdain for the fans who support that team to continually manipulate them to keep them filling the stadium -- and adding to the Bills coffers -- when the people running the team have no interest in winning football games. How long does it take for them to evaluate the team? The OL sucks. The run game sucks. Except for Clay and may Benjamin, the receivers suck. The front seven sucks, sucks, sucks ... and then sucks some more. The safeties are decent, though.

Peterman is not going to be "effective" -- whatever you mean by that -- for any longer than it takes for DCs to figure him out, if he even can put up a reasonable facsimile of an NFL QB for that long. He has a crappy OL, a terrible receiver corps, no running game, and a defense that's virtually been MIA the last two games. How the hell can any QB, especially a rookie, look "effective" when saddled with those liabilities? Dream on. Oh, and the Bills will most definitely be drafting a QB in the first round in 2018 even if there's no QB worth picking in the first or second like there wasn't in 2013.

Lucky then that we missed that ... and have been missing all those playoff beat downs since then, too.

Just because they were there doesn't mean that either one of them had any responsibility for the personnel decisions Carolina made that brought all those stars to the Panthers but don't let reality infringe upon your euphoria. Beane was primarily an administrator who was promoted to Assistant GM only in 2015. McDermott seems to have more actual player evaluation experience as he was Carolina's DC for 5 years, 2011-2016, but depending upon the team dynamics, he might or might not have input to the players Carolina picked.

I WAS talking about OL. The going rate for a good veteran LT, even if he's older like Andrew Whitworth, is $10-11 million annually. RTs are somewhat less and OGs and C are less but don't count on getting any quality OLers for under $5 million a year each in FA. Yeah, a team can spend less but you get what you pay which is why Vlad Ducasse, perennial failed OG, is the Bills starter.

They could have signed one of them. They chose not to. They also chose to let Gilmore and Gillislee walk. Then they started holding a fire sale via trades. They started peddling Dareus so early and often that I'm shocked that they even got a sixth rounder for him; most observers were sure that teams would just wait until they cut him in the off season. Marrone must have really, really wanted ol' #99 ... and he'll probably blossom in Jax. Meanwhile, the Bills have loaded up their roster with JAGs, STers, PS refugees, and some rookies. Cleveland isn't the only team playing moneyball. Well, according to at least one poster, since we should be grateful that we don't live in Syria, we should be happy to continue to support perennial losers.

What the Bills did was shed talent and 2017 payroll, and they used the claim that they didn't "fit" McDermott's "skill set" as their excuse. I actually heard some analyst on tv -- it might have been before/during the Thursday night fiasco against the Jests -- actually say that Woods, Watkins, and Goodwin were all gone because they didn't have the "skill set" the Bills "needed". What "skill set" was that exactly? Apparently Beane and McDermott don't see talent as being a need because the Bills are quickly descending into the talentless depths most recently occupied by Indy and Cleveland ... and the Jauron era Bills. What veterans are left on the team that have any proven talent? Shady, Glenn, Benjamin, and Clay. Since there were so many rumors earlier first about Shady and then later about Glenn being traded, I would not at all be surprised to see them both gone before the beginning of next season, probably swapped for draft picks so that the Bills can draft their shiny new Savior QB and keep the fans excited at least until he looks awful because he has crappy coaching, no protection, and few targets.

Oh, don't be such a Debbie Downer and quash all the happy dreams of the fans spinning fantasies of the Phantom Savior QB who's going to take the Bills to the Super Bowl all by himself. Right-o. Good veteran OLers are always fighting to come play for the Bills with their 2 winning seasons in the last 17 years, especially for the peanuts that OBD deems OLers are worth. That's why Vlad Ducasse is the Bills starting RG.

It doesn't make a difference. The Bills have been drafting in the top 10-12 most of this century, and it hasn't made them winners. Sometimes they've missed on their high picks, but mostly they don't keep them beyond their rookie contracts even if they're Pro Bowlers ... or maybe I should say, especially if they become Pro Bowlers.