SoTier

The best prospects (not necessarily the best actual NFLers) are found in the Top 100. Going into the draft, the Bills had 2 picks in the Top 100, #28 and #60. They came out of Day 1 with #33, #60, #95. If the Bills hadn't traded back, they probably would have still taken Bishop at #60 but KC would have gotten somebody, maybe maybe somebody a lot better than HIcks, with #95. Don't assume to speak for all Bills fans. I have no problem with the Bills getting KC's third round pick when the Bills had no interest in Worthy, the player the Chiefs wanted.

This is the most hateful post I have ever read on TSW. It far surpasses all the other venomous and stupid bull manure that you've posted here in the last few days. Your hatred of Beane and McDermott suggests a level of anger bordering on mental instability.

I don't think that Beane had any interest in Worthy because however fast he is, he's slightly built -- at 6'1" and 172 lbs he's a smurf who's unlikely to have a long NFL career -- and I think Beane always wanted a big outside WR. The optics are "bad" only because people don't look at the whole picture rationally. The Bills traded with KC because they didn't have a particular player they really wanted at #28 plus Chiefs gave them their third round pick in order to swap #28 for #32. Not only did the Bills gain a top 100 pick, but the Chiefs lost that pick. That's a win any way you look at it.

Why not? The Chiefs' WR room last season consisted of Mecole Hardman, Richie James, Skyy Moore, Rashee Rice, Justin Ross, Kadarius Toney, Marquez Valdes-Scantling, Montrell Washington, and Justin Watson. Who were Mahomes' primary WRs in 2023? Hardman, Rice, Valdes-Scantling. The Bills under Ralph Wilson's surrogate Russ Brandon the Bills' primary objective was to make the team as profitable as possible. One of Brandon Beane's first acts as GM was to fire most of staff involved in scouting and talent evaluation. Pre-Beane, one of the Bills highest ranked talent evaluators, Tom Modrak, worked part time ... from his home in Philadelphia. Not all GMs and FOs are created equal.

This post really troubled me because I had a hard time deciding on which emoji to use on it. I settled on "Dislike" but "Vomit", "Eyeroll", "Disagree", and "HaHa" were all good candidates, too. Apparently, the Bills not drafting the prospects they wanted has unhinged numerous members of TSW.

Awesome post!

There's much more to it than that as to why fans are wrong on many picks. Even with access to medicals and interviews, teams also are wrong on picks. Success in the draft demands a lot of serious investigation, good instincts about people, and some luck. Draft prospects are not robots, which makes picking A over B a whole more complicated than totaling up Combine performance, YouTube highlight videos, medical reports, interviews, etc. The people evaluating prospects aren't robots either.

The "crik" vs "creek" thing is something that is endemic in WNY. We don't even think of it, especially people who have never lived outside of the area. Even if you've lived outside of WNY for several years and learned to say "creek", when you move back, it sneaks back into your speech because you hear it all the time. When I lived in Nebraska and the Albany area for more than a decade, I said "creek" but "crik" came back into my everyday speech in a relatively short time.

I don't think that NFL players, coaches or FO staff bring the same emotions to rivalries as fans do. After all, there's only a few hundred players, fewer coaches, and even fewer executives/owners, so they all know their peers. Many, notably players and coaches, frequently change teams. I think the pros' rivalries are more like friendly rivalries between/among siblings or good friends. Antipathy between players or FO personnel is based on personal interactions rather than on the outcomes of games. People who work at Ford don't generally hate people who work at Chevy unless there's some personal bad blood. Fans' rivalries are often tinged with anger, bitterness, envy, frustration, etc. that stem primarily from winning or losing football games. We fans hate the organization, the players, and the coaches -- unless,of course, those who come to our team.

He made "Manifest Destiny" (US spreading all the way to the Pacific) a reality. However, the acquisition of the Mexican territory ignited the battle over expanding slavery into the new territories which eventually resulted in the Civil War. There were more military deaths (600+ K) in the Civil War than in all other US military actions combined, including both World Wars in the 20th century.

Will you feel the same if Worthy turns out to be a speedster who can't catch? Then that trade up was a big miss by KC. As MJS has noted, KC hasn't done well developing WRs, and Worthy is going to need considerable development to be successful. I like AD Mitchell because he seems to be the kind of WR that the Bills want as a WR1 -- speedy but with good size. I would not be upset at Dejean at #33 either. The Bills also have #60 plus KC's late 3rd rounder. Said every GM defending a reach for a guy with speed but not other traits important for his position ... like Aaron Maybin. Worthy is a big gamble, much more appropriate to a 2nd or 3rd rounder than even a late first rounder, and KC hasn't shown the ability to develop WRs.

Really? Your opinion is based on what exactly? That Beane didn't draft players that you thought he should have? That he didn't trade for a veteran receiver that you like? In 6 drafts, Beane's hit 2 HRs with receivers, trading the Bills 2020 first rounder (#22) for WR Stefon Diggs and trading up to get TE Dalton Kincaid in 2023. Beane also hit a solid single with WR Gabe Davis in the fourth round of 2020. He also drafted another promising young WR, Khalil Shakir, in the fifth round in 2022. Beane's WRs 2018 - 6th round - Ray-Ray McCloud 2018 - 7th round - Austin Proehl 2020 - traded 1st round pick to acquire Stefon Diggs 2020 - 4th round - Gabe Davis 2020 - 6th round - Isaiah Hodges# 2021 - 6th round - Marquez Stevenson 2022 - 5th round - Khalil Shakir 2023 - 5th round - Justin Shorter - IR as a rookie Beane's TEs 2019 - 3rd round - Dawson Knox 2019 - 7th round - Tommy Sweeney 2023 - 1st round - Dalton Kincaid

Pretty much. Once a team pays their QB, they can maybe sign 1 other first tier (and expensive) offensive player and 1 first tier (expensive) defensive player. Then they have to make-do with good to decent older veteran players and youngsters on their rookie contracts. If the QB can't make the guys around him better, the team is in deep doodoo. Mike Brown aside, there's really no way that the Bengals can afford both Chase and Higgins after paying Burrow.

My point was that despite being crippled by late season injuries to key players, the Bills defense managed to keep the game close while the offense, which was far healthier, had opportunities they missed. I don't really "blame" offense or defense for the KC loss; they rolled snake eyes again against the Chiefs as in 2021.

It's not a question of "having a really wealthy owner". Every NFL owner is "really wealthy". It's a question of the owner's commitment to winning football games over making larger profits. Mike Brown, like Ralph Wilson, has never been truly committed to winning when winning negatively impacts the team's balance sheet.

It took Chicago four years to decide that they didn't want Trubisky. When they didn't pick up Trubisky's fifth year option, he became a free agent at the end of his fourth season. Trubisky had "no value" because no team was going to give up anything for a guy they could get for nothing. It happens all the time. The Jests decided they didn't want Wilson after his third season, and the Broncos get him for half-price for a season to see if he's worth anything at all.

Apples to turnips, dude. A first round QB on his rookie contract always has more "trade value" than any veteran backup QB because a veteran backup is what he is, and there's no GM who thinks he might develop into something better in the right situation. There are always people, even in NFL FOs, who believe that maybe that first round bust was "mishandled" or "needs a change of scenery" or who decide to just take a flyer because the price is so low compared to what he cost his original team in draft capital. Wilson in particular has value to Denver because with the Jests picking up half his salary, he's cheaper than any veteran backup QB they could sign off the street, and given the Broncos' current QB and cap situation, they might get a QB better than anybody else on their roster at a price they can afford.

I'm not sure what criteria you use to determine whether a team is a Super Bowl contender, but whatever it is, I doubt that it's based on anything except emotion. The Bills won the AFCE with a 5 game win streak at the end of the season that included wins over the Chiefs, the Cowboys and the Dolphins. In fact, the Bills swept their main AFCE rival, the Fins. They earned the #2 seed in the AFC. They manhandled the Stillers in the wild card round. FTR, the Bills whom you claim were "NOT EVEN CLOSE to being anywhere near a Super Bowl contender" was the only AFC team to play the Chiefs tough down to the closing minutes in the playoffs -- and that with the defense being decimated with injuries so badly that they only started 4 LBs against KC and were missing key DBs as well.

Sooooo?

Gabe Davis was a fourth round draft pick so he was taken on Day 3. He probably outplayed his draft position somewhat, and he was probably a bargain at $4-5 million (which is JAG money for a WR) but he surely wasn't worth the $13+ million a year that he got from Jacksonville; he simply isn't fast enough or consistent enough. The Bills already have a couple of guys on their roster capable of replacing a significant amount of Davis' production: Khalil Shakir and Curtis Samuel. The Bills do need to add two outside WRs (WR1 and WR2) before opening day. Most likely, the WR1 will come from round 1 or 2 of the draft. The Bills may take another WR on Day 3 or they may sign a veteran after June 1. They might do both. The Bills have the second best QB in the NFL playing behind a solid OL with a dynamic young starting RB who is a threat in both the running and passing games. Shakir and Samuel are both competent WRs. They have a pair of young TEs who give them the ability to use 2 TE sets to effectively run or pass the ball. The sky is not falling on the Bills offense.

My guess is that Wilson went #2 because Woody Johnson wanted him. I have nothing to prove anything but in the twenty plus years that Johnson has owned the Jests, the team has invested 4 first round picks in QBs: 2000 - #18 Chad Pennington, 2009 - #5 Mark Sanchez, 2018 - #3 Sam Darnold, and 2021 - #2 Zach Wilson. Only Pennington came close to being a franchise QB, and he simply couldn't stay on the field because of injuries. I believe that each of these QBs were drafted by a different GM, so it the only common denominator is Johnson.

It takes a long time for players to come back from ACLs, almost always more than a year physically and frequently longer psychologically. If the Bills didn't feel that Miller could play significantly better than he had last season, they probably would have cut him. OTOH, if Miller didn't feel that he could play significantly better, he wouldn't have taken a $10 million pay cut to prove it. He would have either retired or gotten paid by some other team. Furthermore, if the Bills had cut Miller, they would have created more holes on the team because they would have had to cut more veterans and been unable to replace them with decent players. Of course, they probably would have had to keep Diggs, which may or may not been a good thing.

The Pats missed the playoffs in 2008 because Brady tore up his knee in the season opener. They went 11-5 but Miami beat them out with Chad Pennington taking them to a 11-5 record, too. If the Bills lost Allen in the first game of the season, they probably will miss the playoffs, too.

Did you watch the Bills last season -- I mean really watch them by paying attention to what was going in the game not just kibbutzing with pals, especially in the last half of the season when they made their big run? They were playing championship caliber defense with an injury depleted unit. Matt Milano and Tre White were out for the season in the fifth game of the season, and they looked doomed but they regained their momentum and played tough the rest of the way. At the very end of the season and in the playoff win against Pittsburgh, they had more injuries to the DBs and the LBs. They only started 4 LBs -- including AJ Klein who came out of retirement to play -- against the Chiefs and were missing at least one DB and had another playing limited snaps IIRC, too. It wasn't the defense that let them down against KC, it was the offense that missed a couple of plays that would have won the game. Poyer and Hyde were shadows of their previous selves last season. Injuries did in Hyde, and both had slowed down. White was showing signs of coming back but then he suffered another devastating injury and missed the last 12 games. Miller did next to nothing last season when he did come back, so if he gets back to even a shadow of himself in 2024, it will be a plus. Milano broke his leg rather than suffering a ligament injury so it's likely that he can come back strong this season. The Bills will miss Leonard Floyd on the DL but they're bringing back Ed Oliver who blossomed last season and AJ Epenesa who showed real progress. Tyrel Dodson at LB is gone but Terrel Bernard was outstanding as a 2nd year pro and should be better this year, especially paired with Milano. The 3 starting CBs from last season, Douglas, Benford, and Johnson are all coming back. Edwards and Rapp are the new safeties, which is somewhat worrisome but remember that Poyer and Hyde were largely unknowns when they were signed in 2017. The Bills defense is a work in progress but there's still the draft and post-June 1 FA signings (when they get some extra cap space). They definitely need a pass rusher and probably another safety, and their depth on defense is shaky. McDermott runs a defense that seems to enable the Bills to plug-in players fairly easily as needed. IMO, the Bills D will likely be about as good as last season. If they can avoid devastating injuries to their best players, they have a chance to be better than last season.

Harbaugh hasn't coached in the NFL in a decade, and the NFL in 2024 is very different than it was in 2014. I'm not sure that Harbaugh realizes that since he hired Greg Roman as his OC when he has Justin Herbert as his QB. Is Roman going to try to turn Herbert into a "dual threat QB" like Kaepernick or Lamar early in his career. Ben Johnson has never been a HC in the NFL. A lot of coordinators don't make particularly good HCs, and the list of coordinators who've been successful in their first head coaching gigs is rather small. McDermott is one of them. The Bills "didn't have the horses on defense to beat KC in the playoffs" in 2023 because their defense was decimated by injury late in the season. Not only were they missing Milano and White, but they also lost Douglas, Bernard, and a couple of other defenders for the playoff game with the Chiefs. They still nearly won the game.