SoTier

Different regime. Different motivation. Beane/McDermott would NEVER have traded away Peters for a late first rounder (it was Philly's second first rounder) because they never would have put themselves in the situation that Russ Brandon got himself into because they're intent on winning football games rather than maximizing profits. The Bills were never going to draft Xavier Worthy, so get over it. They were looking for a big boundary WR, and Worthy at 5'11" and 165 lbs wasn't that.

For all their Pro Bowlers, how many times have the Ravens made the Super Bowl since they acquired Lamar Jackson? The same number of times as the Bills. They've made the AFCCC game only once -- and lost to the Chiefs. Just a few months ago, the talented Ravens lost to what you consider the "talentless" Bills in the Divisional round. There's more to building a team that wins the Super Bowl than simply accumulating talent. Both the Bills and Ravens are trying to get to the Super Bowl, and that road invariably goes through KC. If either team can beat KC, they will have a good shot at beating whomever they meet in the Super Bowl.

The Bills offense needed to be great last year because the defense wasn't. The Bills felt that the DL and the defensive backfield needed serious attention. I'm not going to argue with that. Defense wins championships. Moreover, the Bills did take an OL prospect and a blocking TE prospect to protect Allen. A QB needs targets, but he needs protection more. I'm among those who believe that KC would have 5 SB rings if they had protected Mahomes better against the Bucs and Eagles. It's also possible that both Kincaid and Coleman, who both did not play particularly well after they came back from injury, improve considerably this coming season since they're both young players, and that would more than make up for the loss of Cooper and Hollins.

Several posters in other threads have noted that the Bills seemed to be looking for traits like athleticism, speed, tackling ability etc. That's my take, too, and I think that that's a good strategy on Day 3, especially after the 4th round. Most of these kids aren't going to make any NFL roster even if they play special teams, but having some traits that set them apart increases their chances.

Great OLs are rarely filled with multiple Pro Bowlers and All Pros because teams can't afford to pay them all. They usually have 1 or 2 Pro Bowl caliber players and 3-4 very good ones. They also have unit cohesion that makes the OL as a unit significantly better than its parts. That describes the Bills OL to a 'T'.

With an improved defense, maybe the offense doesn't have to score 30+ points to beat KC in the playoffs.

One of the best OTs who ever played for the Bills was an UDFA TE named Jason Peters. Back in the days of the OJ Simpson's Electric Company, a converted TE named Paul Costa anchored one side of the OL that helped OJ run for 2003 yards ... in 14 games. Maybe Hawes is the next Bills TE to move to OT.

Bull manure. They have built a perennial serious contender for the Super Bowl. There is no comparison between the Bills drafts under Beane/McDeromott and the previous regimes' drafts. There is no comparison between the way the current Bills regimes builds its rosters and what passed for roster building in the Drought Era. It wasn't an accident that one of Beane's first actions as GM in 2017 was to replace most of the Bills talent scouting personnel, including some scouts but definitely almost all of the FO personnel. Now, I don't know if you weren't a Bills fans through the Drought Era or if Beane/McDeromott's success has skewed your perspective, but I was a season ticket holder back during the Drought. I sat through losing season after losing season when the best part of attending games was the pre-game tailgating. I saw those clowns mostly draft crappy players. I saw them either trade away the best players they accidentally drafted or let those good players walk away in free agency. IOW, there were few attempts by previous Bills regimes to build a winning team after John Butler and AJ Smith left for San Diego, and none after Russ Brandon became the de facto GM in 2006. McCargo, Troupe, and the infamous Aaron Maybin were all on Brandon's watch. Maximizing profits was infinitely more important than winning football games during the last years of Ralph Wilson's ownership. And FTR, I was NOT a big McDermott or Beane fan when either was hired. I was very skeptical of many of their moves early on, and I admit that I thought that trading away so much assets to draft Josh Allen was a mistake. I thought they should have stayed at 12 and taken Lamar Jackson. I'm glad I was wrong, even though Lamar is a great QB in his own right. Lamar, however, has faced the same hump that Allen and the Bills have faced: the gauntlet of getting through the AFC playoffs only to face the Chiefs in order to get to the Super Bowl.

FYI -- McCargo was drafted in 2006 and Torell Troup was drafted in 2010, long before McDermott or Beane or Pegula came on the scene.

Most draft experts expected a run on DBs, especially CBs, in the first run because there were fewer really good DB prospects than really good DT prospects. Instead, there was a run on DTs that eliminated all of the top-rated DTs well before the Bills' turn. The expected run on DBs never materialized. Hairston was the third CB off the board behind Hunter and Barron (who went later than expected). Most mocks didn't have the Bills taking Hairston because they likely expected him to be long gone. There are still some decent DT prospects left. Every team factors need into their evaluations to get their lists of "best players available", especially at the top of the draft. They also consider how a player fits into their offense or defense. If you think that the Eagles traded up to take Jihad Campbell just because some draftniks think he was their "highest rated player" without regard to how he fit into their plans going forward, you are not being realistic.

Because the white Hairstons owned so many slaves, there are a lot of blacks named Hairston because many freedmen took their former owners' surnames even though most were not blood relatives to their white masters. Many black Hairstons today are not necessarily even related to some other blacks bearing the Hairston name. While the Hairstons are one of the most well known slave holding families, they aren't unique. For more information on the Hairstons, black and white, read Henry Wiencek's definitive family history, The Hairstons, An American Family in Black and White. It's available on Amazon. It's a good read.

Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" ... Maybelline

Is it that Cook "cannot block" or that he cannot block as well as Ty Johnson or that he can't catch all that well? It's entirely possible that one part of Johnson's game -- his ability to block and make clutch short yard catches -- is better than Cook's. OTOH, there's little doubt that Johnson's over all game isn't as good as Cook's. It's also likely that Cook's talent would be much harder to replace than Johnson's. I think that Cook is worth more to the Bills than a specialist like Johnson. I'm good with paying him $12-13 million. On the Bills Drought Era RB carousel, Travis Henry doesn't quite fit the profile. McGahee, Lynch, and even Spiller were good/great players who were sent packing simply because the Bills didn't want to pay them. Henry had off field issues that surfaced after the Bills traded him away. Not sure how much of his drug use that the Bills were aware of. He was suspended more than once while with Tennessee and Denver, and I believe he was imprisoned for drug trafficking.

Actually, I rather enjoy being a fan of the chasee rather than one of the chasers. I like winning the regular season rather than winning free agency or the off season. Our AFCE rivals sign all these big names (or names of players we've merely heard of) and pick all these highly touted prospects in the draft, and then comes the regular season, and our Bills crush their hopes ... and their spirits ... and send their fans home dreaming of winning the next off-season.

I am not a fan of fried baloney ... or ketchup on any meat except hamburgers or cheeseburgers "with everything". The combination is worthy of a vomit emoji. I do, however, like uncooked bologna with yellow mustard. I'm a fan of thin sliced and stacked bologna for sandwiches. Love it. I sometimes add dill pickle relish or kosher dill slices. Yum!

I don't have a doomsday scenario. Like @eball and some other posters have posted, the Bills are too competent to totally miss on an entire draft. I trust them to get some good players, so my "doomsday" is really more of a "disappointment": I would not be happy if the Bills did not draft at least one OLer if they keep all 10 of their picks. If they used some of their Day 3 picks to move up in the 2nd round or add a third rounder, then not taking an OLer would be okay with me, but protecting the QB is too important not to always be looking to the future when having lots of picks.

What's impressive is that McDaniel got into Yale without being a legacy applicant (ie, an applicant who has one or more family members who graduated from the school) or a gifted athlete. For the 2146 openings in the Class of 2028, Yale had 57,228 applicants. Being the child/grandchild of an alumnus or an outstanding HS athlete moves any applicant up to top of the applicant list. Miami is loaded with talent on the offensive skill positions but their offense is significantly compromised by having mediocre OL play. They have so much invested in their QB and WRs that they can't afford to keep the best of their OLers. That imbalance is likely to bite them in the butt this season since they've lost more talent in free agency or to retirement on both sides of the ball, and come into the draft without filling many of their holes much less improving the talent.

I don't miss those days at all. I want the Bills to draft #32 every year.

78 years ago today, April 15, 1947, Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in MLB.

FYI ... there are other positions that are important besides offensive skill positions. Here are just 3 who could have helped the Bills. All started 16 games for their teams as rookies. EJ Manuel only started 17 games for the Bills in 4 years. Justin Pugh was taken at #19; he started at guard as a rookie for the Giants, and was a starter at both guard positions all 11 of his seasons with the Giants and Cardinals. Kyle Long was drafted at #20; he started all 16 games at right tackle for the Bears as a rookie and made the Pro Bowl three straight seasons. He was a 2nd team All Pro in 2014. His career was shortened by a series of injuries after the 2015 season, but he still played 7 seasons in the NFL, all as a starter. Desmond Trufant was drafted at #22; he started all 16 games as a rookie, made the Pro Bowl once, and was a starting DB for 8 seasons with Atlanta and Detroit.

Philly also just gave Saquan an extension and a pay raise. Baltimore is seeking to extend Henry for 2025 and beyond, too.

These are the first round QBs plus later round QBs of some significance drafted between 2000 and 2014, and so would have time to develop into pros by 2017 or 2018. 2000 - #18 - Chad Pennington #199 - Tom Brady 2001 - #1 - Michael Vick #32 - Drew Brees 2002 - #1 - David Carr #3 - Joey Harrington #32 - Patrick Ramsey #81 - Josh McKown #108 - David Garrard 2003 - #1 - Carson Palmer #7 Byron Leftwich #19 - Kyle Boller #22 - Rex Grossman 2004 - #1 - Eli Manning #4 - Phillip Rivers #11 - Ben Roethlisberger #22 - JP Losman #90 - Matt Schaub 2005 - #1 - Alex Smith #24 - Aaron Rodgers #25- Jason Campbell #106 - Kyle Orton #213 - Derek Anderson #230 - Matt Cassel #250 - Ryan Fitzpatrick 2006 - #3 - Vince Young #10 - Matt Leinart #11 - Jay Cutler 2007 - #1 - Ja'Marcus Russell #22 - Brady Quinn 2008 - #3 - Matt Ryan #18 Joe Flacco 2009 - #1 - Matthew Stafford #5 - Mark Sanchez #17 - Josh Freeman 2010 - #1 - Sam Bradford #25 - Tim Tebow 2011 - #1 - Cam Newton #8 - Jake Locker #10 - Blaine Gabbert #12 - Christian Ponder #35- Andy Dalton #36- Colin Kaepernick #180 - Tyrod Taylor 2012 - #1 - Andrew Luck #2 - Robert Griffin III #8 Ryan Tannehill #22 - Brandon Weeden #57 - Brock Osweiller #75 - Russell Wilson #88 - Nick Foles #102 -Kirk Cousins 2013 - #16 - EJ Manuel #39 - Geno Smith 2014 - #3 - Blake Bortles #22 - Johnny Manziel #32 - Teddy Bridgewater #36 - Derek Carr #62 - Jimmy Garoppolo The third best first round QBs were Patrick Ramsey, Kyle Boller, Ben Roethlisberger, Jason Campbell, Jay Cutler, Josh Freeman, Blaine Gabbert, Ryan Tannehill and Teddy Bridgewater. Only Ben Roethlisberger was worth trading up to get (and I think Pittsburgh did). FTR, the 3rd first round QBs between 2015 and 2023 were: Paxton Lynch (#26 in 2016), Deshaun Watson (#12 in 2017), Josh Allen (#7 in 2018), Dwayne Haskins (#15 in 2019), Justin Herbert (#6 in 2020), Trey Lance (#3 in 2021), and Anthony Richardson (#4 in 2022). Only Allen and Herbert were worth trading up to get. I'll stand by what I said back in 2018. Trading up to take the third best QB in a draft is a very iffy proposition. That's as true in 2025 as it was in 2018. I have always owned that I thought that drafting Allen was a mistake in 2018. I didn't think that the Bills "drafted the wrong Josh" because I thought that both would be busts. I was wrong, and I've always acknowledged that. Nothing that's transpired since has changed the truth of that statement. The Bills cut Fitzpatrick prior to the 2013 draft because they planned on drafting a QB in the 2013 draft, regardless of the quality of the QBs in that class. Manuel was unimpressive as a rookie, and he didn't improve as a sophomore. The Bills replaced him with Kyle Orton who was simply playing for a paycheck ... and it cost the Bills the win that would have put them in the playoffs. What's wrong with that? I'll stand by that all day, every day. If a team needs players at several positions, they should take the one they like best for one of those positions. If New Orleans loves Sanders, they should take him at #9, but they shouldn't take him just because they need a QB. With their roster, they'll have other opportunities to pick a QB early in Round 1 in the next couple of years.

Bull manure. The reason the Bills drought lasted so long was because the owner and his surrogate, Russ Brandon, operated the team to maximize profits. The aim was to spend the minimum amount necessary to field a team that won just enough to convince fans to fill the seats. The last Bills GM before Beane was hired to put winning over maximizing profits was Tom Donahoe. He traded a first round pick to get Drew Bledsoe and he traded up in the 2004 to draft JP Losman. Both of those QBs were compromised by the team's lack of support in terms of providing either with decent coaching, OL, and WRs. Under Brandon the Bills played "money ball". They drafted players and they signed FAs with the sole purpose of conning fans into believing the team was attempting to build a winning team. It's why they hired obscure That's why they replaced RB McGahey with Marshawn Lynch and then replaced Lynch with CJ Spiller. It's why they signed Terrell Owens and later Mario Williams. It's also why they drafted Manuel in 2013 and let Stephon Gilmore leave in free agency so they needed to draft Tre'Davious White in 2017 to replace him. Between 2006 and 2013, the Bills were literally a farm team for the rest of the NFL as so many of the good/great players they developed went on to star on other teams because the team "couldn't afford them" while the Bills rosters were filled with waiver wire refugees, UDFAs, and Day 3 draft picks. Luckily for Bills fans, Pegula got lucky that his choice for HC, Rex Ryan, crashed and burned. Both McDermott and Brandon Beane were "outsiders" to the Bills organization. We got even luckier when Russ Brandon was fired in 2018 for issues unrelated to how he ran the football team, and Pegula essentially turned the team over to Brandon Beane to run.

The Bills FO during the drought never put off drafting a QB or any player because the current team "wasn't ready", ie had enough talent; they didn't draft good/great players in critical positions when they had the opportunity to do so because they were using premium draft picks to replace good starters that they either traded away or allowed to walk in free agency. Drafting a QB simply because he's the best of QB in a draft without really outstanding QB prospects is definitely a "drought era Bills loser concept". The Bills did exactly that in 2013 when they drafted EJ Manuel.

In my city, it would improve the gene pool. Despite the city having sidewalks and using sidewalk plows to clear those sidewalks during the winter, too many kids (and their dumbass parents) regularly walk in the streets. // sarcasm off Seriously, in my area, the rural and suburban kids all get picked up by buses. In the city, most kids actually do use the sidewalks. More importantly, this is whitetail deer country. Rural, suburban, urban -- nobody with half a brain drives carelessly before/around sunrise or sunset because smacking a deer is a very real possibility.