SoTier

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.

How about blocking? How about running pass routes? NFL RBs are expected to do both well if they want to be starters. My guess is that Cook took awhile to master those skills well enough.

It used to take about 3 years for WRs to come into their own. I don't think that's true any more for the WRs rated at the top of the class -- or for some later draft picks who have talent and are willing to work really hard to improve their skills like Nacua. I think coaching at the top collegiate programs has really improved, and there are also lots of camps or "schools" for WRs to learn fundamentals. I also think that many collegiate football players who are aiming for potential NFL careers prepare for that as seriously as other college students who want to become doctors or scientists or musicians.

Your take is pure bull manure! McDermott plays his high round draft picks -- I think all of his first rounders except Elam started all or most of their games as rookies. He also starts his second rounders ... like O'Cyrus Torrence last season. Cook didn't play much as a rookie because he wasn't good enough. He got plenty of PT as a sophomore when he mastered the skills he needed to start for the Bills. Elam didn't play much as a rookie or sophomore because his play wasn't good enough.

Football players, particularly WRs, aren't like houses in good neighborhoods; they depreciate rather than appreciate. Hill was about 3 years younger than Diggs. A 31-year-old WR with a big contract isn't going to bring anything near as much as a 20-something WR with whom the new team can negotiate a new contract.

That's nonsense. QBs play for teams, the make-up of which is controlled by other people. Moreover, winning a Super Bowl, especially when a team gets into the playoffs, is often dependent upon things totally out of the QB's control like injuries, penalties, defensive plays, special team plays, and good or bad luck.

Detroit goes a lot further since Sheila Ford Hamp became the principal owner of the Lions in 2020 and replaced Bob Quinn with Brad Holmes as GM in 2021. The Bills got a lot further when Terry Pegula became the owner of the Bills in 2013 and finally replaced Russ Brandon as head of the organization in 2018. With Brandon Beane finally given real power as GM, the Bills fired all of their offensive assistants except Daboll and hired a real QB coach for Allen who went from a raw rookie who flashed potential to a pretty good NFL QB in his second year. If star collegiate athletes don't want to play for the bottom-dweller du jour, they can a) go play in Canada and play for a lot less money until they become NFL free agents or b) go to work in ordinary entry-level jobs like millions of other college drop-outs or grads or c) finish their degrees or go to grad/professinal schools. Nobody is being forced to play in the NFL for millions of dollars annually. Andrew Luck was "thrown into the fire" and led the Colts to the playoffs as a rookie. He led the Colts to the playoffs every season that he played most of the season. His career was shortened by injury, which could be attributed to the Colts' failure to give him a better OL, but not by not by starting as a rookie. You don't know that Allen would have been better if he sat his entire rookie season. IMO, many of Allen's problems, especially early on, were psychological and mental. He did need to sit for a while as a rookie, but what he really needed, was a real QB coach not some guy who had 1 year of QB coaching experience at a college some 20 years before. The Bills remedied that in 2019, and Allen made massive improvements during his sophomore season and continued to get better. Perpetually losing teams result from issues with ownership IMO. See my reply above about the Lions and the Bills. What owners want from their team and how they go about achieving their goals determines whether a team is a perpetual loser or a team that gets better. FTR, under Ralph Wilson as owner and Russ Brandon as defacto owner, the Bills seldom re-signed their best home-grown talent and used the draft to fill the holes that resulted by letting their best players walk in free agency or by trading them away. When Pegula finally fired Brandon in 2018 and gave Beane full GM powers (including control of coaching payroll budgets), the Bills truly began their ascent in the AFC. If Brandon was still in charge, Allen wouldn't have reached his full potential until he was playing for another team.

These are the QBs drafted #1 overall since 2000 - 2001 - Michael Vick 2002 - David Carr 2003 - Carson Palmer 2004 - Eli Manning 2005 - Alex Smith 2007 - JaMarcus Russell 2009 - Matthew Stafford 2010 - Sam Bradford 2011 - Cam Newton 2012 - Andrew Luck 2015 - Jameis Winston 2016 - Jared Goff 2018 - Baker Mayfield 2019 - Kyler Murray 2020 - Joe Burrow 2021 - Trevor Lawrence IMO, I see 1 outright bust -- JaMarcus Russell -- and maybe 1 QB who failed primarily because of the team he was drafted by -- David Carr. Most of the QBs were at least fairly successful NFL QBs even though they generally played for poor teams at the beginning of their careers. I think your argument for changing the way the NFL draft works is not supported by the facts, so I would "no" to your plan to change the NFL draft.

Good teams are good not just because they have a good/great QB. They're good because they not only have talented rosters, but they also have good/great coaches who get the most out of the talent they have available. Are you really a Bills fan? You certainly have a low opinion of them. Only a single team -- the Panthers -- had fewer than 4 wins in 2023 and only 3 teams had 4 wins. In 2023, these teams that lost their starting QBs averaged 8.2 wins. Half of these teams won more games than they lost and one had double digit wins and made the playoffs. The Browns lost Watson but still won 11 games. The Bengals lost Burrow but still won 9 games. The Colts lost Richardson but still won 9 games. The Jests lost Rodgers but still won 7 games. The Vikings lost Cousins but still won 7 games. The Giants lost Jones but still won 6 games.

All four of those QBs were considered likely to go in the top ten. In fact, Rodgers was expected to go #1 overall in 2005. I think that QBs that aren't/weren't considered likely to go at the top half of the first round and who were drafted in the second half of the first round are those I'd consider "lesser QBs": Lamar Jackson (2018), Paxton Lynch (2016), Johnny Manziel (2014), Teddy Bridgewater (2014), EJ Manuel (2013), Brandon Weeden (2012), Tim Tebow (2010), Joe Flacco (2009), Brady Quinn (2007), Jason Campbell (2005), and JP Losman (2004). Only Flacco and Jackson have become successful NFL starters. Bridgewater had a decent career. In the 2024 draft, the four QBs talked about as likely to go at the top of first round are Williams, Daniels, Maye and McCarthy.

Divisional games are always wars, especially for the divisional doormats. When the Raiders finally beat the Chiefs in KC a few years ago, they drove their team buses around the stadium jeering all the way. Sweeping divisional rivals is exceptionally hard. Losing your starting QB is almost always a disaster but good FOs can sometimes mitigate the problem. When the Vikings lost Cousins, they traded for Joshua Dobbs. When the Browns lost Watson, they brought in Flacco -- and they made the playoffs. IMO, the Jests FO just gave up when Rodgers went down and Wilson quickly demonstrated he wasn't a NFL QB. That's a loser's attitude.

Don't worry too much. The Jests haven't hit on a QB in 2 decades (Chad Pennington, 2000), and they've only hit on 2 QBs in the draft in 60 years (Namath). It's not that they haven't tried: Mark Sanchez (#5) in 2009, Sam Darnold (#3) in 2018, Zach Wilson (#2) in 2021. Chicago, Washington, and NE all need QBs, so I doubt they'll trade out of the top three spots. The Giants may take a QB at #6. That leaves the Jests to go for one of the lesser QBs -- or trade up to get ahead of the Giants for the fourth best QB in the draft. Pay back is a you-know-what!!!! Then again, I have to thank them for their sacrifice!

One of the great groups of the early 1960s ... the Drifters (1962) and how different popular music sounded just a few years later ... the Byrds (1967)

Building a winning team takes more than simply assembling a group of talented players. Neither the Jests' FO nor their coaching staff have shown they can turn a bunch of guys, even talented guys, into an effective team, especially on offense. They also haven't shown that they can handle adversity well as last season demonstrated. I will remain skeptical that they can even win more games than they lose until they actual do it. The Jests have the stink of perpetual loser about them, and that's always a sign that the problems with the franchise are much further up the team food chain than the players on the field.

^^^ I will address both these posts below: The Jests FO with help from their coaches have again built a great team on paper but we all know that the Jests are the champs of winning the off-season. They've built a roster filled with lots of expensive, older, often injured players that makes it absolutely necessary for them to make a serious playoff run in 2024 because not only are they're operating in "win now" mode, but because the owner is likely to fire their collective arses if they fail to make the playoffs again. Salah simply hasn't shown that he's a good enough HC to even get his team to the playoffs much less win in the post-season. The AFC remains significantly tougher than the NFC, so just getting to the playoffs will be hard. In the AFCE, the Jets likely have to get past the Bills and/or Fins to grab a playoff berth. It's likely that multiple AFCN teams make the playoffs again (three made the playoffs last season, including 1 with a backup QB and the other with a pretty poor starting QB). Moreover, several of the moves the Jests made last season, most notably signing Rodgers' buddies and then failing to sign an adequate back QB after Rodgers' injury, suggests that there's dysfunction and/or incompetence in the FO. I got the impression that essentially everyone on the Jests bent over backwards to accommodate Rodgers. Maybe this wasn't their choice but a dictate from owner Woody Johnson. IMO, the chances of the Jests making the playoffs is south of 50% because they are depending upon a HC who hasn't demonstrated much growth after several years in the job and so many older players with injury histories to make it through the entire season unscathed.

I think it depends upon the specific player they draft -- and the priorities of the FO that led them to make that trade. It's easy for fans to say, "we have to draft a QB in this draft!" but that's not always possible. It was a big-time fail when the Bills determined they were going to take a QB in the first round of the 204 draft, so they traded their 2005 first rounder plus a second rounder and another pick to move back into the first to take JP Losman at #22 after taking Lee Evans at #13 when the top three prospects in that draft class (Manning, Rivers, and Roethlisberger) were gone by pick #11. If a QB isn't a good value to take at #13 why ever would you trade so much to take him 9 picks later? It was also a fail in 2013 when the Bills traded back to take EJ Manuel because he wasn't really a first round prospect at all -- none of the QBs in the 2013 class were -- but the Bills took him anyway. Drafting a QB in the first round -- and having him play early -- is a sure way to excite fans into buying tickets, especially if the team has missed the playoffs for several years. The top priority of the Bills FO during Ralph Wilson's last years was to maximize profits by putting butts in the seats. It sure wasn't a fail for the Bills to trade up to #7 in 2018 to take Josh Allen. I doubt that they would have made that move up to draft any of the other QBs in the 2018 draft because McBeane's top priority has always been to win football games, and they wanted Allen. Would they have settled for one of the other first round QBs in 2018 if Allen was gone earlier? I'm really not sure.

The difference between Pittsburgh and Washington and/or the Giants is that the Stillers have an elite defense, an excellent running game, and a solid OL and decent receivers. IOW, they're a much better team than either the Commanders or Giants. In fact, the Stillers have the same kind of team that Wilson had during his successful seasons with the Seahawks.

Asking that question means that you are just another one of the lemmings who think that maybe, just maybe, Beane and McDermott actually might know what they're doing. Watching Russ Brandon trade away All Pro LT Jason Peters and replacing him with waiver-wire refugees in 2009 convinced me of the importance of having a solid OL. I think it was 2 or 3 years before the Bills got around to even drafting an actual LT. Prioritizing need over talent sets up a team for failure. A team like the Bills has to make its high draft picks count because the draft is the best place to find the difference makers they need. If there's a WR and/or DE as well as a C on the board that the Bills have graded as first round talents, they should take the one they think is likely to become a stud. If there's a first round C on the board but none of the WRs or DEs left are close to his quality, it's a no-brainer to take the C. Maurkise Pouncey went to the Stillers at #18 in 2010. Nine times Pro Bowler, 2 time All Pro. He retired after the 2020 season. The only season he failed to make the Pro Bowl was the season he suffered a season-ending injury in the opening game of the season. He came back the next season to be selected All Pro a second time.

I'm in! I've already advocated drafting a center at #28 in a couple of other threads. Even if there's not a run on WRs, the fact is a great center will help Allen more than a good WR, and you're more likely to get a great IOLer than a great WR at #28

I haven't watched a lot of Fields, but I think he has a skill set reminiscent of Russ in his prime, so they can both work in the same type of offense. My guess is that Russ will start the season with Fields as his backup. If he can't recreate the form he had in Seattle, then Fields will get his shot. Even if Russ excels and Fields doesn't see much playing time, I think that the Stillers may re-sign Fields for the future if he looks good in practice.

I picked Thanksgiving or Black Friday because I think they've done pretty well on Thanksgiving. Allen and the Bills made the NFL pay attention to them in 2019 when they smacked the Cowboys around 26-15 on Thanksgiving Day.

I disagreed with you because it's not "insane" to wait until somebody is actually convicted before penalizing him/her. Even perverts have rights.