SoTier

I don't think it was meant as a criticism of Diggs, so much as an example of another difference in the way the game was played 30 years ago and how it's played today.

I disagree. Reed and Moulds played in an entirely different era so you cannot really compare stats. DBs had much more latitude to defend passes back then. I would guess that at least half of the PI penalties today would be considered good defensive plays 30 years ago. Both also played before "WR" and "diva" became virtually synonymous. Reed's career spanned the Bills' Glory Years. He had 4 1000+ yard seasons plus 3 more 900+ and 2 800+ yard seasons when 1000 yard seasons were much rarer than they are today. He also shared WR duties with James Lofton in the prime of his career and with Eric Moulds at the end of it. He also was instrumental in helping the Bills get to four consecutive Super Bowls. Moulds played on the declining teams of the late 1990s and the early Drought teams of the early 2000s. He played with Kelly only for a single season as a rookie. Then he suffered through seasons with Todd Collins, Doug Flutie, Rob Johnson, Alex Van Pelt, Drew Bledsoe, and Kelly Holcomb. He had four 1,000 yard seasons: in 1998 (1368, Flutie), 2000 (1326, Johnson), 2002 (1292, Bledsoe), and 2004 (1043, Bledsoe).

I voted "Other". I would like the Bills to take a WR either first or second round, but I want the Bills to go BPA at #28 even if that's not a WR, possibly moving up a few spots to get the prospect they want. While the late first round is a good place to pick a premium S or IOL with the potential to become a difference maker, rather than taking a WR with less potential simply to fill a need, I'm flexible as to positions such DL. This is a such a deep WR draft that the Bills should be able to get a good WR prospect in the second round even if they have to trade up a few spots.

Sammy Watkins wasn't a particularly great WR, but he was the first WR off the board at #3. Justin Jefferson went at #22 and Brian Aiyuk at #25 in 2020 while Henry Ruggs, Jerry Jeudy, CeeDee Lamb, and Jalen Reagor were all taken before them. In 2015, Kevin White was taken at #7 between Amari Cooper and DeVante Parker. Justin Blackmon was picked #5 in 2012. He played just 20 games. IOW, no draft pick comes with a guarantee, including those drafted at the very top of the draft

There are so many excellent wide receivers in this draft that even at 28, the Bills could potentially get a top WR. In 2014 when the Bills traded up to get Sammy Watkins at #3, the Bucs got Mike Evans at #7 and the Giants got Odell at #12, and the Packers got Davante Adams at #53. In 2013, the Texans got D-Hop at #27, the Bills got Bobby Woods at #41 and the Chargers got Keenan Allen at #76. I would give some trade capital to move up a few slots from 28 but I wouldn't give up the 2025 first for a WR. Maybe I'd add in one of the 2025 seconds and some Day 3 picks, too, to move up to 16-20.

I never accuse players, especially Bills players, of being lazy, not trying, etc. IMO, these guys wouldn't even sniff the NFL if drive and desire weren't part of their DNA. Sometimes, players simply just don't have the physical talent, instincts or mental processing ability to be NFL stars. Players are people not robots, and sometimes the drive and ambition that got them to the NFL can also make them PITAs. Sometimes personal life outside football intrudes and short-circuits players' relationships with the team on the field and in the locker room. Sometimes personal conflicts with coaches or teammates also spill out. I am not going to speculate about why Stefon Diggs is no longer a Buffalo Bill. He was great for the Bills for nearly all of his time in Buffalo, but I think somewhere/somehow last season something changed. It was time for him to go. I hope he finds success in Houston or where ever he goes in the future unless he plays the Bills. Thanks for the memories, Stef.

Oliver is about the same size as Aaron Donald. DTs tend to come into their own a few years into their careers rather than early on, and Oliver seems to have done that last season. The Bills defense was seriously compromised last season by injuries, especially by the time the KC playoff game arrived. They dressed only 4 LBs for the KC game, including AJ Klein who came out of retirement, and they were missing Douglas at CB. They still hung with KC to the end, being a missed FG from tying the game and a dropped TD pass from taking the lead.

A really good pass catching TE seems like a better security blanket for a top QB than a WR1 as the Chiefs (Kelce) and the Pats (Gronkowski) showed. More versatile in the offense and not as likely to become a diva.

Sometimes it's not that there's "too many needs" but rather that the talent available doesn't match the team's needs.

If the PITA earning big $$$ produced like he did 2 years ago, he'd be worth keeping. Maybe Diggs needs a "refresh" -- ie, a new team -- every few years. A generational talent at QB in his prime and a solid, pretty young OL trumps a 40-year-old QB coming off a serious injury and an OL dependent upon multiple aging and/or returning from injury linemen. Let's be realistic here. All the hype about the Jests is based on the assumption that Rodgers is going come back from his Achilles injury as good as he was in Green Bay but his last season in GB was one of his poorest, with his highest INTs in a dozen years. Having a great defense won't win the the Jests the AFCE or even a wild card berth if Rodgers doesn't return to his pre-2022 form or gets seriously injured.

Dorsey is credited with developing Newton into a better passer. He also was fairly well known for working privately with QBs. Russ Brandon was laser focused on the bottom line. The Bills never paid top dollar for coaches, but under Brandon (2006-2018), the budgets Brandon allowed for the coaches wasn't nearly enough to bring in good position coaches, especially on offense where good offensive assistants are expensive. After 2018, the Bills kept OC Daboll and fired all the other offensive coaches. Allen's first QB coach had a single year of coaching college QBs about 20 years earlier. He had no experience working with NFL QBs. I don't know if Williams' signing made a huge jump in attendance but it certainly excited the fan base for a while. When Brandon signed Owens in 2009, Bills fans were angry over the Bills giving Jauron an extension after the team's collapse the previous season. The Bills sold a record number of season tix for the 2009 season, more than 56k IIRC.

Sorry, but Kincaid, Knox, and Morris > Knox, Kroft, and Becker. However, the OL in 2020 wasn't nearly as good as the 2023 OL, and the even without Morse, the 2024 OL is currently better. No offense is successful without a decent OL. Because of the improvement in the OL and the TEs, the Bills have the ability to field a versatile offense in 2024 even if none of their WRs puts up huge individual numbers.

Why do you get a pass on doing "all kinds of research"? I did "all kinds of research" for the facts I presented. Back up your claims with facts, and maybe your opinions will get more respect. FTR, Doug Whaley would have drafted Mahomes but he lost the power struggle that occurred after the Bills hired McDermott, and didn't have control of the 2017 draft. He was fired a day or two after that draft. Unfortunately, Mahomes or Allen, neither would have become the QB he is today because the Bills under Russ Brandon put the emphasis on putting butts in the seats rather than winning football games. They had bottom feeder coaches because they wouldn't pay top money to coaches. Allen's first QB coach was a guy who had no real experience developing a QB. After Brandon was fired and Beane promoted, the Bills hired Ken Dorsey to develop Allen. Mario Williams was signed for the same reason that Terrell Owens was signed in 2009: to put butts in the seats when fans were souring after more losing seasons.

I think the rosters Russ Brandon and Dick Jauron (Marv Levy was figurehead GM during a couple of those years) built between 2006 and 2009 were infinitely superior to Beane's 2024 roster: "Tentative Trent" Edwards ... Leodis McKelvin ... Robert Royal ... Derrick Dockery ... Josh Reed ... Langston Walker ... Ryan Denney. Anybody else getting a whiff of troll stink???

Nobody can fairly rank the 2024 Bills compared to the rest of the NFL or the 2020 Bills because the 2024 roster is not close to being complete. How about Kincaid? Did you forget about him or did you categorically exclude TEs because the Bills didn't have a good one in 2020? How about Torrence, McGovern, and Brown? The OL isn't a flashy unit but if a team doesn't have a good one, its offense is going to be significantly diminished no matter how good the skilled players are. Beane has built one good enough to allow the Bills to run well, even on third and short or in the red zone, something that the Bills in 2020 couldn't do very well.

In the decade before the Bills gave Brandon Beane (2008-2017) full control of the Bills, the organization under various GMs and the money-ball rule of Russ Brandon ... drafted Leodis McKelvin (#11 in 2008), Aaron Maybin (#11 in 2009), and CJ Spiller (#9 in 2010). drafted James Hardy (2008), Torrell Troup (2010), Cyrus Kouanddijo (2014), Reggie Ragland (2016), and Zay Jones (2017) all in the second round. traded Pro Bowl RB Marshawn Lynch (1 round pick in 2007) to Seattle in 2010. Lynch made the Pro Bowl 4 times, All Pro once, and was a key player on the Seahawks' Super Bowl team. traded away Pro Bowl LT Jason Peters before the 2009 season to Philadelphia. Peters made the Pro Bowl 7 more times and All Pro twice. He will be a first ballot HOFer when he becomes eligible. drafted EJ Manuel in the first round of the 2013 draft. did not even attempt to re-sign Pro Bowl Stephon Gilmore in 2017. Playing for the Patriots, Gilmore made the Pro Bowl four more times, All Pro twice, and Defensive Player of the Year. He also was a key member of the 2018 Patriots Super Bowl winning team. More importantly, between 2008 and 2017, the Bills had a record of 69-91, two winning seasons, and one playoff appearance. Between 2018 and 2023 under Brandon Beane, the Bills have a record of 64-34, five winning seasons, five playoff appearances, four straight AFCE appearances.

I think you inhabit an alternative universe with no connection to reality. Did you ever watch Ryan's Bills teams when you were sober? I have no doubt that Whaley would have drafted Mahomes. However, I don't think he would developed into today's Patrick Mahomes. He was around at #10 because there were a lot of questions about him, and Reid and Bieniemy worked long and hard with him to get him on the right path, especially in his first couple of seasons. I doubt that Ryan would have bothered much with Mahomes, just thrown him into the game. IMO, nostalgia is a defense mechanism. For most people, high school mostly sucked, but go to your 40 or 50 year HS reunion, and it seems a pretty good time. ROTFLMAO! Do you realize that there are 12 items in a dozen, and that "dozens" implies more than 1? If you think "there's dozens of coaches that would've won a SB by now with Josh Allen", please name some of these paragons. You can't blame Whaley for the Ryan hiring. He was charged with presenting a list of interested candidates, but it would have been Russ Brandon and Terry Pegula doing the picking. Brandon would NEVER have hired Ryan -- Ryan wanted too much -- but Pegula was blown away by Ryan's glib tongue (ie, BS) in his interview.

Not surprised, but I don't think it will happen. "Possibility" is the key word. Player A drafted at #7 will not necessarily be a better NFL player than Player B drafted at #27. Player A is simply considered more likely to be successful than Player B. It's not worth 2 firsts and a second. FWIW ... even if the Bills were to move up to the top of the draft and actually grabbed a future superstar WR, the chances of that player being Allen's "go-to for a decade" are slim to none given salary cap and injuries.

Terry Pegula hired Rex Ryan, overriding Russ Brandon who was Whaley's boss, so you can't pin Ryan's hire on DW. Pegula essentially gave Ryan a blank check, and Ryan took advantage of it.

Rex's record against the Patriots was 3-13 with the Jests and Bills and 1-0 with the Jests in the 2009 playoffs. Ryan was one of numerous great coordinators who failed as HCs, including Steve Spagnuolo of the Chiefs.

That's too much for a WR, especially in a WR-rich class where there will likely be better WR prospects available in the bottom of the first and into the second round than there usually are available even the top half of the first rounds of most drafts. I'm not opposed to the Bills using #28, one of the 2025 seconds, and maybe one or two of the Day 3 picks to move up but NOT 2 firsts plus a second next year.

Yes! He was a crappy HC who got lucky a couple of times and managed to get a few playoff wins. In his 6 seasons with the Jests, he had only 2 winning seasons. His offenses were god awful even with a young QB drafted in the top 5. He did NOTHING to develop Mark Sanchez, so why would anyone think that he could take a raw young QB like Allen and do anything with him? After his failure with the Jests, he mismanaged and miscoached the Bills for almost 2 seasons before being fired, leaving a talent-depleted team for McDermott. Ryan was a step up from Dick Jauron (easily one of the worst HCs in the NFL in this century), but probably a down-grade from Gailey and Marrone who had significantly less talent to work with. This one is for all you Ryan fans out there ...

Shakir is coming into his third season in 2024, and usually that's when WRs who aren't top prospects from the best programs develop into good NFL wideouts if they have the talent. I don't think that Beane would have made the trade if the Bills coaching staff wasn't confident that Shakir can take up some of the production loss from not having Diggs. Beane doesn't strike me as a knee-jerk or fly-by-the-seat-of-his-pants type guy. He's a forward thinker and a planner, so his focus is long-term ... which is really what a team should want with a GM. Leave the short-term focus to the HC. Look at last season when the consensus among fans was that the Bills were going into the season without a real replacement for Tremaine Edmunds because the new starter in his spot was some second-year kid named Terrel Bernard who wasn't a first round pick and had only played in a couple of games. Surprise, surprise. Beane realized that fairly early on that Edmunds wasn't what they wanted/needed in a MLB, so he drafted a replacement really before the fans were even thinking about the "problem". I think Bernard made more plays in his first game than Edmunds made during the entire 2022 season, and all the angst over the Bills supposed hole at LB faded away. The Bills offense will look different than in past years without Diggs, but that doesn't mean that it won't be as productive. Allen needs receiving options, and he'll have them by September, although not necessarily a WR1 as good as Diggs in his prime. It's also possible that "the hole at WR" goes the way of the "hole at LB".

I was shocked by the news of the Diggs trade, but I think it makes sense because I think that the Bills, ie, Joe Brady, wants multiple options on offense so that teams cannot assume when the Bills come out in W personnel, they're going to do X or if they are in Y personnel, theyr'e going to do Z . That's how they went on their winning streak without either Davis or Diggs doing much pass catching. The versatility of passing out of apparent running formations and vice versa makes an offense much harder to defend against.

They take a WR in the 2nd.