SoTier

The ONLY reason that I wouldn't call it the worse WR corps ever is because I'm not sure that the 1973 Buffalo Bills even had a real WR corps. That was the year that OJ Simpson ran for 2003 yards in a 14 game season. The Bills played OT Paul Costa at TE, so they obviously valued run blocking. I suppose those WRs were kind of afterthoughts, much like the WRs on the 2005 Chicago Bears when they were bulldozing their way to 11-5 and the NFCN title.

Who among the Bills WRs is at least half as good as Odell Beckham? Oh, in case you don't follow the NFL except as it pertains to FFB, the Giants are 0-5 despite having a good defense, and they're further in the toilet because they've lost Beckham for the season. Their other two WRs are out, too.

Evaluate what? How they can put more lipstick on the pig they've given McDermott so that there's not a mass revolt by season ticket holders next year? They don't have an NFL caliber receiving corps except for Clay and Matthews. They have no depth on the OL, so when an OLer gets hurt -- which happens regularly -- they have to depend upon the likes of Vlad Ducasse. They have Shady and ? as RBs, so they have no depth there, either. Do you really think Mike Tolbert can be a feature back for even 1 game? Glenn at LT and Dawkins at RT would help but Glenn needs to get healthy first. That doesn't really do much for the fact that they need a better back to spell Shady than Tolbert or that their current receiving corps probably isn't good enough to play for the UB Bulls. The only two NFL caliber receivers on the team are Clay and Matthews and both are hurt. Excellent post. Dennison wants to pass to set up the run, but with the receivers he's got, he probably should run to set up the pass instead because the WRs are just awful ... and with Clay out, the TEs become almost as bad. Agreed. Too many fans refuse to accept that reality. The Bills sent their entire WR corps from last year -- Watkins, Woods, and Goodwin, which was probably the most talented bunch they've had in about 15 years --packing and replaced them with JAGs, Never-Weres, Has-Beens, and ST refugees. They sold fans on the idea that these scrubs are "just as good" as the NFL caliber WRs they kicked to the curb, and for a few weeks it worked, primarily because Charles Clay and Shady at RB have been masking some of the deficiencies of the WRs. The injury to Clay ripped the mask off totally. My guess is that it's going to get worse as DCs collect film on what the Bills try to do on offense. Even Aaron Rodgers couldn't throw the scrubs the Bills had on the field yesterday open. None of the Bills current starting WRs would make any other NFL team except as STs. Lie to yourself and scapegoat Taylor if it makes you feel happy but it doesn't make it true.

At the end of the day, you're as full of bull manure as you usually are. What QB, exactly, would be a fit for an offense without a receiving corps, which was the Bills by the fourth quarter yesterday?

+1.

Trading up for a QB in the first round hasn't been a successful strategy over the last 15 years except once (Giants 2004), and for the Bills (2004), it was a disaster because it precluded them for even considering taking Rodgers the next year. If Taylor continues to play well (and he would have to in order for the Bills to finish below the middle of the pack), then it's not imperative for the Bills to draft a QB in the first round in 2018. If they like a kid and he's available, then they take him. If not, there will be new prospects the following draft. Rather than using all the extra picks to chase after one player who could very well bust, use them to make the team more talented where there's real need ... I totally agree with your post, especially about drafting "the right guy". If a team isn't sure about a kid, passing on him isn't "drafting scared" but drafting smart. More than just avoiding the Gabberts and Ponders, the Bills do NOT need to do a redux of JP Losman, either, where they give up too much for a flawed prospect, including the opportunity to grab a much better prospect if one comes along a year or two later. As for success rates of QBs, I think that article's "success rate" for QBs is probably far more generous than I'd go with. I don't equate starting, even for half their careers, with being a success because we all know that some QBs have been starters only because they were first round picks or because their teams have nobody better. For example, Mark Sanchez has played in 77 games, starting 72. He's been in the league for 8 full years and has been the designated starter for 4 years with the Jests and half a season with Philly. I understand that the author was trying to be objective, but there's no way anybody can seriously consider Sanchez a successful QB.

Believe me, those ghosts are going to hang around until the Bills make the playoffs ... and then there will be new ghosts. No long-time Bills fan is ever free of them if the team shows even a bit of promise ... especially "Wide Right!".

Actually, it doesn't. Glenn can play for another ten years at a high level (Jason Peters is still playing well 8 seasons after the Bills traded him away for next to nothing compared to his worth), anchoring the line at one of the hardest positions to play ... and to fill. Compared to LTs, fast WRs are much easier to find and develop. The thing is that most fans don't appreciate the "big uglies" who man both the offensive and defensive lines until they're gone. A big part of the Bills' problems over the years of the Drought has also been that the FO and some HCs didn't appreciate them, either. The Bills will be needing to replace two significant cogs on their defensive and offensive lines in the near future because they're on the wrong side of 30: Kyle Williams and Richie Incognito. They really should draft replacements for both in 2018, and not Day Three after-thoughts. They don't need to also scramble for another LT prospect, too.

LOL. Whose "metrics"? Eric Wood is not an "elite" player, either.

NOT.EVEN.CLOSE. First of all, Manuel's "significant playing time" consisted of 17 starts over four years in Buffalo, including 10 as a rookie. Secondly, you obviously never watched Mark Sanchez play after about the middle of his second season. Third, you obviously never watched Kelly Holcomb or Trent Edwards play for the Bills. Fourth, you obviously never watched Brock Osweiler play for the Houston Texans. Agreed. I thought he looked significantly improved over the Buffalo version of EJ. There's something to be said for maturity and/or better coaching.

Well, why not? First class LTs are almost as easy to find as good RBs and DBs. Maybe the Bills could coax Langston Walker out of retirement. //sarcasm

The Bills don't need more future cap space so they can build the mythical winning team they've been building for seventeen years and have never been able to build because they're always trading away their best players to free up more cap space to build the great team in the future that never materializes. Enough is enough!

^^^ Actually, if you compare Taylor's three years as a starter to Winston's three years as a starter, Taylor's completion % and QB rating are all higher than Winston's. Taylor's INT % is significantly lower than Winston's while his QBR for his two complete years is higher than Winston's as well. Winston has throw for more yards but he has 294 more passing attempts than Taylor has had in the last 3 years. Taylor's Y/A is only .1 lower than Winston's. For QBs playing on teams with very different offensive philosophies, their stats are very similar when you look at the percentages and averages for them both as starters rather than just the raw numbers. Many of the same fans who believe Winston is a "franchise QB" regularly hate on Taylor because he doesn't put up the big raw stats that Winston does, apparently forgetting that the Bills are not a passing team and that the goal of playing games is to win them, not pass for 300+ yards and garner FFB points. If the Bills continue to play well and win games with Taylor throwing for around +/-200 yards a game, taking care of the ball, and making key plays as he's done, how is he not a "franchise QB"? A franchise QB does what he needs to do with what he's got in order to win games ... and not only doesn't Taylor have the wide receivers to have success throwing the ball a lot downfield, but that's not the Bills' offensive philosophy.

And Mahomes has done what in NFL games that count, exactly? Nothing. Nada. He hasn't even gotten into a game yet. He was also only the third best QB prospect in the 2017 draft. Most drafts yield only one QB who might be considered a "franchise QB", and some don't yield any. I think trading up for any QB except the consensus #1 pick is foolish. If he's not clearly the very best guy in the draft, why are you willing to risk so much when there's little evidence to suggest it works? Let's be honest here: if a QB prospect is so great, why would the team not take him, even if they have a "franchise QB"? This isn't the "good old days" before the rookie salary scale when teams couldn't afford to draft a QB #1 over all when they already had an adequate starter. Moreover, if their current QB is so great, why are they picking #1? Here are the trades for first round QBs for the last 15 years. Not many success stories here. In 2016, the Rams traded up to get Jared Goff. After a rocky rookie year, Goff looks better as a sophomore but he truly needs to be a great QB to be worth the picks. Goff being only as good as Carson Palmer or Alex Smith (pre-KC) wouldn't make most fans happy. In 2016 the Eagles also traded up to take a QB: Carson Wentz at #2. If Carson Wentz works out to be a franchise QB, the Eagles will be the only team to win the QB lottery by trading up for a non-overall #1 pick . In 2012, the Redskins gambled to take Robert Griffin III at #2. He was the OROY ... and he was never as good again. Many fans blame his injury, but the reality is that his style wasn't sustainable although the QB who made plays with his legs was briefly in vogue. It's a good thing they saved their bacon by drafting Kirk Cousins in the 4th round. Of course, the big winner in the QB lottery was Seattle who got Russell Wilson in the third. He's certainly the highest achiever among the 2012 QBs. In 2009, the Jests traded up to take Mark "Butt Fumble" Sanchez at #5. Sanchez looked decent as a rookie and early in his sophomore season, and then began sliding downhill. In 2004, the Giants traded a bunch of picks, including the #4 pick that they had used on Phillip Rivers, to land the #1 overall pick, Eli Manning. That was a win for the Giants. Eli is streaky, but he seems to bring his A game when it counts (hence 2 Lombardis) whereas Rivers seems to do just the opposite: he seems to fold in important games despite piling up impressive stats (hence only 1 playoff win in his career ... and only 1 playoff appearance since 2009). In 2004, the Bills traded back into the first round to take JP Losman at #22. For those with short memories, not only was Losman a bust, but the trade prevented the Bills from being able to take Aaron Rodgers with the #18 pick in 2005. Of course, the team that probably made out the best in 2004, which was a generational year for QBs, was Pittsburgh who took Ben Roethlisberger at #11, easily the best and most consistent QB from 2004 and a future HOFer.

The Bills would be foolish to not keep Taylor if he continues to play well simply because there's no guarantee that the Bills are going to find their "future franchise QB" in the 2018 draft. The Bills have tried drafting QBs in the first round, and both were busts. If 2018 is a dud year for QBs like 2013 was, it won't even matter if the Bills have the #1 pick in the draft. Even a draft with a lot of prospects likely to go in the first round doesn't mean that the Bills will pick the right one. They traded back into the first round to take Losman in a draft that not only produced with three other first round QBs who were all successful but also a third rounder who was a decent starter for several years. Aside from that, a young QB might not be ready for the NFL in his first or even his second year, especially since so many colleges no longer play pro-style offenses.

I watched parts of the Chargers-Eagles game. There had to be a lot more Eagles fans than Chargers fans in the stadium because they were cheering whenever the Eagles made plays ... and booing whenever calls went against them ... to the point that the announcers mentioned it more than once.

When they secure a playoff spot, then I'll do a happy dance. Through bitter experience, I've learned not to get my hopes up about this team. There are still 12 games left.

As others have said, he doesn't have any! Most times they can't get open, and when they do, they can't catch. A couple of years ago, KC went through an entire season without Alex Smith throwing a TD pass to his WRs, and everybody figured Smith was just a check-down sort of guy. Fast forward to 2017 when the Chiefs actually have some speedy, sure-hand wideouts and guess what ... Smith is throwing to them down field!! I'm afraid I have to agree. IMO, the FO is focused on improving the profit margin which is why they traded Watkins this season rather than just letting him play out his rookie contract. They were never going to pay him market rate which is why they didn't pick up his fifth year option, but by trading him and then trading for Matthews they saved a considerable amount in 2017 salary since Watkins was a top 5 pick in his draft class.

Something is definitely wrong with the Carpies ... and I think it's more than just Cutler. Sorry, that team is so talented on offense that even Cutler should be able to get them into the EZ more than once in 8 quarters. Certainly Taylor or Fitzpatrick would. Cutler isn't a particularly good QB but he is competent enough to run an offense, which Miami wasn't yesterday. Miami looked like they were going to annilihate NO on that first drive, but after that interception, they seemed to surrender and let the Saints have their way with them. Maybe all the logistical dislocations and angst from dealing with Irma and its impacts, including all the traveling MIami's done, has taken a major toll on numerous players' (coaches', too) mental states, making it harder for them to concentrate on preparing/playing football games.

Here! Here! I think Watson is HOF material based on his first four games, too ... along with such phenoms as Nick Foles, Brock Osweiler, and all the other assorted rookie/second QBs who looked great -- until DCs figured out their weaknesses.

Exactly this. If they'd been called the opposite on the field, those two rulings would have also been "confirmed". That's the way it's been gong all season ... the guys in NY have been reluctant to over rule the guys on the field without clear evidence.

That's pretty much what DTs do, though. They aren't the big QB rushers from the edges who usually get credited with sacks and forced fumbles. They mostly stop inside runs and collapse pockets. You usually don't hear much about them, but if the opposing team is having trouble running the ball inside and/or their QB is being pressured, your DTs are playing well.

The "here and now" is that the Bills are once again rearranging the deck chairs on the doomed ship the Bills have been for the past seventeen seasons. The Bills dismantled their entire wide receiving corps, possibly the best quality set of WR they had since 2002, during the off-season and then reassembled it from a collection of JAGs, ST refugees, and rookie. Now, fans who built a fantasy about a promising rookie reprising Odell Beckham's rookie season are getting a bit nervous. They console themselves by dreaming of all the great players the Bills are going to draft with their six picks in the first 100 slots of the 2018, convinced that the Bills are going to come into TC next season with a shiny new rookie QB who's going to solve all their problems and lead the team to the Super Bowl in short order. Good luck with that. I have no doubt that the Bills will have a shiny new rookie QB, but who knows how good he'll be. As the Bills themselves have proven in their fruitless Super Bowl trips a quarter century ago ... the third time isn't necessarily a charm ... nor even the fourth.

^^^ I remember the debate about whether Brady was "done" back in 2002 after the Pats won the SB and then missed the playoffs the next year. That was the last time they didn't win the AFCE except for 2008 when Brady was knocked out for the year in the first game of the season, and Miami snuck in with a tie breaker. Sorry, but I'll believe the Pats are on the decline when they don't win the AFCE ... just as I'll believe the Bills will make the playoffs when they actually do. I've been disappointed too many times to base the entire season on 3 games ... or even 6.

All of these people who are so "offended" by the supposed "disrespect" of players, coaches, and owners linking arms in solidarity with kneeling players conveniently ignore the POTUS's insult, an insult made for no reason except to score political points with the GOP's racist constituency.