SoTier

Some fans just don't get this. Some players are simply best suited to play in only one kind of scheme and don't look particularly good in other systems. Sometimes it can also be coaching -- not necessarily how good or bad a particular coach may be but how that coach and player interact. The best example of this is the Eagles LB Zach Baun who was a JAG LB in New Orleans for 4 years. Philly took a chance on him, and something clicked -- maybe scheme, maybe coaching, maybe Philly cheese steaks rather than jambalaya. Whatever it was, Baun became an All Pro and was a finalist for DPOY in 2024.

I'm not sure the reasons are particularly "confounding". It may be as simple as there just aren't FAs available who a) have the skills the Bills need and b) agree to play for what the Bills can afford and c) are willing to play for the Bills in a particular FA period. All three of those conditions have to be met in order for a for a team to acquire a FA like Connor McGovern who works for them. Of course, guards and centers don't command the kind of money in free agency that pass rushers or wide receivers do, so the Bills can afford to sign higher level FA IOLers than they can DLers and WRs, making the chances for success among IOLers more likely than among WRs.

Are the Bengals "serious contenders"? I don't think they are at this time. The Bengals are a marginal playoff team at best. That they failed to make the playoffs in 2023 is blamed on Burrow being injured, but they were only 5-5 in the 10 games when Burrow played and 4-3 without him. They failed again to make the playoffs, again going 9-8, in 2024 because their defense couldn't stop anybody. Your argument that the Bengals shouldn't "waste" money on modest FAs doesn't make sense. They don't have a few holes that can be stop-gap filled with modest FA signings like the Bills or Ravens or Rams. They have lots of holes on both sides of the ball. Hendrickson led the NFL in sacks, but the Bengals' defense still sucked. They have serious need of better defensive backfield personnel, so even some of the modest DBs available in FA would be upgrades. Burrow was sacked 48 times in 2024, but they re-signed Cody Ford (yes, the same Cody Ford the Bills drafted in Round 2 in 2019 and wasn't good enough to even be a Bills backup). In contrast, Josh Allen was sacked 14 times, Lamar Jackson was sacked 23 times, and Matthew Stafford 28 times in 2024. How is a team supposed to improve its record if its roster is filled with poor players -- and it doesn't go after some modest FAs who are better than the guys currently on their roster?

I don't doubt that you're a Bills fan because I remember you posting on TSW for years. In the past, I think I've probably agreed with you more times than not. That said, your posts repeatedly dissing McDermott and Beane seem to have become a campaign to discredit the Bills organization. To read your comments without knowing the Bills record since 2017, one would think that the Bills were a perpetual bottom feeder team with little hope of making the playoffs. I understand the frustration that not making the SB creates. It's tough to deal with the disappointment. I can't watch or talk football for awhile after the last loss of every recent season. However, if your frustration has blocked out your memory of the seventeen miserable seasons of the Drought Era or you weren't a Bills fan back then, let me remind you that rooting for a bottom feeder team is much more painful than rooting for a winner. The best part of attending Bills games during the Drought was the tail-gating because the Bills discovered new ways to lose. Fans started thinking about the draft in October. It was a continual parade of crappy coaches, good players leaving for better teams, trading for/signing big name veterans who either didn't fit or had no talent around them. When McDermott and later Beane were hired, I was skeptical about both. They have both grown into their positions. Are there better HCs and GMs in the NFL? Probably, but not too many. Neither is going anywhere any time soon. Make your peace with that. Realize that this is probably the best time EVER to be a Bills fan. Get out from under the cloud of anger and frustration that seems to have colored your recent posts. I think that Miami shows what happens when a team loads up on a QB and 2 WRs. When those big cap hits come due, there's little room to improve the rest of the team, even with the cap increasing annually. Remember, too, that KC chose to trade away Tyreek Hill rather than pay him big bucks ... and they won two Super Bowls without him.

It's still all PR. They really didn't want to pay either of them. If they had extended Higgins in 2023 and Chase in 2024, they may very well have had both for around $50 million, but they stalled until Burrow said he really wanted them. I really don't think that Burrow would complain if they let one go and added better OLers. Now, Brown can put the blame for a poor OL, a poor running game, and bad defense on Burrow, especially if they trade Hendrickson.

IMO, these contracts were done to pacify the fan base. They'll be excited by the long passes that will make the Bengals look like a playoff contender even if their record is only around .500. It's the quintessential formula for "putting butts in the seats" by keeping/bringing in big names even if those aren't big name players aren't what the team needs. If Mike Brown was serious about building another Super Bowl contending team, he would have extended Chase last year or right after the season rather than waiting around until the market went north of $40 million. He would have paid Hendrickson early and let Higgins walk. Then he would have had the money to upgrade the OL and the defense.

And Burrow will get the crap beat out of him again because their OL can't protect him ... a combination of not having a great OL and not having a good enough running game to keep defenses from teeing off on the QB. The plan to have a great passer and two great wide outs isn't one that works well unless a team has a great QB still on a rookie contract.

The Eagles were a team built to win with a QB on a rookie QB. Nick Foles went 5-1, including three playoff games. My guess is that the Eagles team carried both QBs more than either QB carried the team. If the Bills win a Super Bowl, whether Allen or somebody else leads them to the win, I will build a shrine to the entire team in my front yard.

Untrue. The Eagles won the Super Bowl after the 2017 season and after the 2024 season. That's a seven year span, not five. There is no "disconnect" between Beane and McDermott. They were friends and colleagues in Carolina, and McDermott was key in Beane being hired in 2017. That cordial relationship continues. Beane and McDermott collaborate, not compete. Ummm ... Nick Foles, the Eagles QB who actually played in the 2018 Super Bowl, was the Eagles' third round pick in 2012. Wentz had one great season, 2017, and never came close to playing that well again.

I would say that Burrow probably carried the Bengals more than Allen carried the Bills, but he was likely penalized in the voting because the Bengals had much less success than the Bills. There's a significant gulf between a 9-8 non-playoff team and a 13-4 team that was the #2 seed in the playoffs. Burrow had two great WRs, but a mediocre OL, a poor running game (30th), and a horrendous defense early in the season. Allen had significantly better protection than Burrow when passing (Allen was sacked only 14 times) because of the Bills OL, and the Bills had a much more successful running game (9th in yards, 1st with 32 rushing TDs), which was a result of, again, a significantly better offensive line and an outstanding RB in Cook as well as Allen's own running ability. Allen also benefited from a few spectacular plays that were played and re-played in the media, most notably his TD pass to himself in the snow in the Niners game as well as his big TD run against the Chiefs. The only MVP finalist who had similar spectacular plays that were played over and over in the media was Barkley. What part of "no criteria" don't you understand? Voters for the MVP were not given instructions about voting. They were simply asked to vote for who they thought was the MVP. Beane has had 39 draft picks between 2018 and 2022, including 6 first rounders and 5 second rounders. 23 of those draft picks turned into decent or better NFL players. That's almost 60% of Beane's draftees from rounds 1-7 have been "hits". Of the 6 first rounders, 1 was a bust, but 1 is a generational talent. The others all became solid NFL starters. Of the 5 second rounders, 2 were busts, 1 is a Pro Bowl RB who led the NFL in rushing TDs, and the others are solid NFLers. McGovern isn't a "B player". He's an A player, as are Dawkins and Brown. Beane has always prioritized protecting Allen by investing team resources into the OL. He's drafted at least 1 OLer in every one of his drafts except 2020. Protecting your all world QB and enabling him to succeed should be every GM's top priority. FTR, Taron Johnson was a 2nd team All Pro in 2023. James Cook was a Pro Bowler in 2023 and 2024. Stefon Diggs was a 4 time PBer for the Bills, including 1st team AP in 2020 and 2nd team AP in 2022.

Actually, this is untrue. There are no specific criteria for MVP given to the voters. Each voter casts votes for his top 5 MVP candidates. How Josh Allen won the MVP Nope, your fellow trollboy Mike2times challenged somebody to name the last impact player the Bills had drafted or signed. I named Cook and Shakir as 2 draftees from 2022, and McGovern as a FA signee in 2023.

Do you even know who Connor McGovern is? I mean, the Connor McGovern the Bills signed as an UFA from Dallas in 2023 is definitely an impact player. The other Connor McGovern is a well-traveled JAG center for Broncos, Jests, Saints, and the Jests again. Adding McGovern as a guard to the Bills OL in 2023, significantly improved that unit. Moving McGovern to C in 2024 to replace Mitch Morse helped make the Bills OL one of the best units in the NFL. What team allowed the fewest QB sacks in 2024? Oh, yeah, that talentless Bills OL allowed only 14 QB sacks. Moreover, the Bills running game in 2024 was #9 in rushing yards, #12 in yards per carry, and #1 in rushing TDs. Dawkins, Brown, and McGovern are all impact players. That you ignore the importance of the Bills OL to the team's success demonstrates your ignorance. The last time I looked, 2023 was only 2 years ago. Connor McGovern is most definitely an impact player.

Another post, another demonstration of your ignorance. Signed: 2023 - Connor McGovern Drafted: 2022 - James Cook, Khalil Shakir

With Darnold in that 2018 draft, Beane had no worries. The Jests just can't say "no" to USC QBs.

I wouldn't trade up too high for a CB because good ones can be found in the 20s (Tre White was #27 IIRC), but if the Bills really like a DE or DT, they should go get him, even moving up into the top half of the first round if necessary.

I think that the only way the Bills are likely to get a ready-to-start DLer in the draft is to trade up into the top half of the draft. I don't think they have enough draft capital to get to the top ten, but in a draft deep in DL talent, top half of the first might be enough. Aaron Donald went #13 in 2014. Jared Verse went #19 in 2024 when 6 QBs were taken in the first 12 picks. The Bills first and one of their seconds and another pick or two or a player could get them into the top half of the draft.

I'm going to be kind and call your first paragraph hyperbole. Maybe if you were the Bills owner, you would fire him, but Terry Pegula won't. I seriously doubt that any current NFL owner would do that. In 2018, Beane was a first time GM without a lot of hands-on personnel management experience. He was also scrambling to fill a roster that was seriously lacking in NFL caliber talent (except for a handful of 2nd year players drafted by McDermott in 2017) for an organization that had a reputation as being second-rate at best. Fast forward seven years, and Beane is considered one of the best GMs in the NFL having built a perennial Super Bowl contender, drafted the NFL MVP, and remade the Bills reputation into one of the best run organizations in the NFL. Terry Pegula is not firing Beane for missing on some modestly priced FAs that's assuming that said modestly priced FAs all fail. Beane didn't "put his neck out there" at all. Another TSW GM wannabe full of hyperbole. The Bills are certainly not "completely deprived of top talent outside of Allen". The Bills have one of the best OLs in the NFL. They have one of the best OLs in the NFL. James Cook is one of the most explosive RBs, a threat to score every time he carries or catches the ball. Shakir was second in the NFL in YAC. Benford is one of the top young CBs in the NFL. More importantly, collecting a few big name stars doesn't make a good team. See the perennial basket case NY Jests. FTR, Daniel Jones recently signed for $14 million, so you are talking about backup/low end starter QBs. Not many teams, including the Chiefs and Eagles, would make the playoffs with such a low end signal caller. Put a decent franchise level QB on the Bills like Darnold or Goff, and the Bills would remain a playoff contender.

Fact: Elam was the only first round bust out of 6 shots in Beane's tenure. The other 5 are all starters in the NFL even if not on the Bills. Fact: Ford and Basham were the only 2 second round busts out of 5 shots in Beane's tenure even if some on TSW have the pitchforks out for Epenesa. About half of all first round picks don't become stars even if they aren't out right busts. Maybe a quarter or third of second round picks become quality starters, and they usually take a couple of seasons to fully develop. The Eagles won because their defense had a collective career day, and the Chiefs played their worst game of the entire season. Brown was a third rounder, which would put him on Day 2. So I would say Day 2 and Day 3 have been above average. "Difference makers" don't come along every day. KC drafted Travis Kelce in 2013, Chris Jones and Tyreek Hill in 2016, and Patrick Mahomes and Kareem Hunt in 2017. After that they got Nick Bolton, Creed Humphrey, and Trey Smith in 2021, and Trent McDuffie in 2022. Most of their picks since they got Mahomes have been more of the "good/above average" guys about on a par with what the Bills have done in the draft. Again, like the Bills, they made their one move up for a QB pay off in spades. That tops everything.

So ends the Jests latest quest for the Holy Grail (ie, a QB to lead them to the playoffs) .... a 49 million dollar hole.

I hope you are right about Hoecht.

I was thinking this, too. Maybe they kick in a player (like AJE, everybody's whipping boy it seems) along with some picks to move up.

This is true. The Bills don't have a virtually unlimited line of credit like the Pats and Bears appear to have, but they have a very tidy sum that allows them to shop for some nice things, albeit not designer togs. 😄

Maybe the change of scenery will work out for him. I wish him luck.

Finding a rookie DLer ready to start from opening day at #30 is a pipe dream. Those kinds of players are off the board by the middle of the first round, especially when there's not a lot of QBs to distract teams drafting at the top of the draft.

The problem with overspending on free agency to create a great team for one or two seasons is that it only guarantees that the cap hit will come due whether or not the team wins a Super Bowl. Too often great teams don't win the Super Bowl even if they make it the big game. The Bills are drafting at the bottom of each round (#30 in round 1). The chances of finding a ready-to-start WR or DT at that draft position are between slim and none. The Bills could draft a true stud at either WR or DT at #30, but it's most likely going to take a couple of seasons to see that great player.