SoTier

Thanks for an excellent post, especially bringing up your big concerns going into 2023, which were probably most fans' concerns, too. That Beane and McDermott dealt with those personnel issues as well as they did last season -- as well as replacing their OC in season -- suggests that they are not nearly the incompetents that some here think they are and that the season isn't over before it even starts.

I don't think that the bolded sentence is true at all. White didn't play the last 12 games of the regular season or the playoffs and had already been replaced by Douglas last season. Hyde and Poyer had some injuries, and both had significantly slowed down. If one or both were starters this season, they would be targeted by every DC. Floyd's 10.5 sacks will be missed. At best, Miller comes back better in 2024 than he was last season, and that hole at least closes if it doesn't disappear. Dodson backed up Bernard, but Bernard should be healthy and Matt Milano should be returning, too. I think that Morse might be missed at center and/or McGovern at guard but the OTs and the other OG are solid. McGovern's replacement at G was on the team last season. Both Diggs and G.Davis weren't big contributors in the second half of the season or in the playoffs. Both seemed to have lost the ability to make clutch plays in 2023. The Bills will miss Diggs' 1000+ yards, but not necessarily him. Davis was certainly not worth the $13 million the Jags are paying him. I don't think that the Bills were looking to replace Diggs and G Davis spot for spot. I think they want a WR corp that is sure handed and can catch passes in the middle of the field and in the red zone. R Davis is a nice addition to the RB group behind Cook and Johnson as both a runner and pass catcher.

This was my take, too. Moreover, "transition" means changing or morphing into something else. The Bills didn't tear down the team they had from last year but shed mostly players who underperformed compared to their past play, especially in the playoffs. My guess is that without cap issues, it still would be unlikely that White, Hyde, Poyer, and even Davis would be starters on the 2024 team. Diggs would definitely not be a Bill in 2024. Only Floyd and Morse would be starters. I agree. As a retiree, I can attest to how actually making the decision to retire impacts your attitude even if that retirement date is a year or two in the future. If you've got all your retirement ducks in a row, especially financially and the date set, the urge to just say "take this job and shove it" and walk out the door when things go south is like a siren-song ... even if you've loved your career and job and have always been a "team player". Personally, I don't think Rodgers has been a "team player" for a long time if ever. His flirtation with politics this past winter demonstrates that he's already planning his next chapter.

Romanowski sounds like a sociopath, right down to insinuating that "roid rage" may have played a role in his bad behavior. Lots of players from that era used steroids but, even under the less restrict rules in effect then, his on-field behavior was egregious and his off-field behavior reprehensible. That he spent the last 20 years using his company as a tax dodge just underscores Romanowski's belief that the rules don't apply to him.

Take it from me, being retired and doing exactly what you want to when you want to is priceless. I was a farm kid. I started working for pay at 11 picking strawberries for 6 cents a quart, and I worked continuously for the next 55 years until I retired 8 years ago. You realize that almost all fortunes, not just in the US currently but all over the world throughout history, were created by someone screwing over other people. It's just the way it is and has always been.

Andy Reid wore that "he can't win the big one" label for years in Philadelphia. Then he went to KC, found his future HOF QB, and went on from there. Tony Dungy wore that label for years, too, until he and Peyton finally won the Lombardi. There's a lot of luck involved in any SB win. Consider that in NE's greatest season, 2007, when they won 18 games in a row, a pass that David Tyree caught on his helmet, cost them the Super Bowl --- and an historic perfect 19-0 season. Manure happens. The law of averages says that the Bills are due some good luck at the end of the season and in the playoffs, especially when it comes to injuries on defense. Maybe this is the year they get some.

Exactly this. If the Bills can stay relatively healthy this season, I don't see any reason for them to not be able to win the AFCE and go on from there. Hopefully, they can have better luck in the playoffs in 2024 than the 2021 and 2023 teams had, especially with late season/playoff injuries. The team will look different on both sides of the ball and play a more diverse style of offense, but that's not a step backwards. It's an adaptation to what DCs have and are doing in response to the rule changes that favored passers and pass receivers. IMO, making defenses worry about both the run and the pass coming from formations that feature the same personnel is the Bills' aim with their new offensive pieces.

A lot of Appalachia (western PA, eastern KY and TN, western VA, NC and SC) were originally settled by Scotch Irish (Ulster Scots) immigrants in the late 18th and early 19th century who brought their version of English with them. Conditions in Ireland were never good for either Catholic or Protestant lower classes, so there was a lot of emigration, which probably explains how "criks" are also found in the UK and Australia. Industrialization in the late 19th and early 20th century lured a lot of migrants out of Appalachia to the more prosperous large and small manufacturing towns in the Midwest and the Great Lakes. The "Hillbilly Highway" refers to some of this out-migration to cities like Cincinnati, Detroit, Pittsburgh, and yes, Buffalo, after WW II for well paying jobs in the steel and automobile industries. A lot of people in the Jamestown area have their roots in West Virginia because their grandparents or great grandparents came to work in the furniture factories that once dominated Jamestown's economy.

Starting QB Jack Kemp was injured during training camp IIRC. Shaw was coming back from a knee-injury suffered the previous year, and the rest of the OL was trash. The Bills ended up going through 4 other QBs in 14 games: Dan Darragh (rookie), Ed Rutkowski (eventually became Erie County Executive), Kay Stephenson, and Tom Flores. They finished 1-12-1 and used their #1 pick on OJ Simpson.

Sadly, I think you might be right. The Diggs we saw on the field and along the sidelines in the second half of last season wasn't the Stefon Diggs whom Bills fans cheered for the previous three seasons. Maybe he was hampered by some nagging injury that was never revealed or maybe he just slowed down enough that he couldn't be what he was before. In either case, his frustration showed, and maybe in a new situation, he can regain some of his previous form.

Totally agree. To end up with the #3 pick when you have a desperate need of a franchise QB is great. To have the #3 pick and have a really good prospect available is priceless. From everything I've read about Maye, he has the most upside of the 2024 QBs as he's only 21 and was only a starter for 2 seasons.

Actually, most QBs have always "all over the map on deep throws". There's just too many factors to get right to make "bombs away" a successful strategy long term. It's also been tried before. Ever hear of "Air Coryell"? Under HC Don Coryell the Chargers had their own Maserati in Dan Fouts. In Coryell's 8 year tenure, the Chargers made the playoffs 4 times and the conference championship twice but never made the Super Bowl ... and this was back in the days before FA and salary caps made it really hard to pair a super QB with a bunch of really good WRs.

Well, for a guy supposedly that dumb, ol' Terry has done pretty well for himself ... 4 SB rings, HOF, and a second successful career in broadcasting.

Actually, it can easily be a problem for any team. At the end of the 2024 SB, the Chiefs' D was gassed and barely summoned up the energy for the next play.

Cry me a river. I've been a Bills fan for 61 years, which is most likely longer than you've been alive. The Bills failed to make the playoffs in 37 of those years. They had 31 losing seasons, including 5 seasons with only 1 or 2 wins. In the last 40 years the Bills have never been as bad as they were in the 1970s and 1980s, although the later years of the Drought under Russ Brandon and Dick Jauron came close. Because you're unhappy because the Bills haven't advanced to the Super Bowl in the last few years, you're throwing a hissy fit. Guess what, it could be a whole lot worse. You could be a Jests fan. To quote Mick Jagger, "you can't always get what you want".

Is protecting the D a bad thing? Playing D against teams that can make long scoring drives with regularity can wear a defense down if their own offense can't stay on the field long enough to give the defense a breather. That's the problem with a quick strike offense -- the defense is always on the field.

Is the offense "forced to play small ball" or is that what they want to play?

How has "bombs away" worked for the mighty Fishies? According to one analyst, they may be the fastest team ever after adding more offensive speed in the draft. They certainly are spectacular when they stomp on bottom feeder defenses but when they run into a team with a good defense, they crash and burn because when Ds stop their WRs, they don't have many real answers. I want the Bills to be able to move the ball however they want to move it no matter what the opponent's defense or the weather does. Winning football games is much more important to me than having Allen set passing records. My guess is that that's Allen POV, too. He doesn't like to lose.

If a team is going to copy cat another team, shouldn't it be the best one, not another also-ran? The Chiefs have won back-to-back Lombardis since they traded away Tyreek Hill. Plain and simple, teams paying an elite QB cannot afford really top end WRs not on their rookie contracts, so their WR rooms are going to be of modest quality. What has Miami won with all their vaunted speed on offense ... aside from being able to beat up on lesser teams? They won only 1 or 2 games against teams with winning records in 2023.

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.