MJS

Brian Brohm. Zero TDs, and 5 INTs during his starts. Combined passer rating of a 26, worse even than Peterman's.

They were a cheap D last year as well. I think fans were used to the Bills having an expensive defense, but they've been shedding defensive salary cap for a few years and getting younger on that side of the ball.

Moving the goalposts back is smart. It makes field goals harder, so they will be attempted less, especially with the end zone still being 5 yards deeper than the NFL. Not sure they should lengthen the play clock by that much, though. That is a significant change that will be felt. The pace will be much slower now. The pace of the game and the movement, along with the fewer downs, is what makes the CFL really different.

Ouch, that's a brutal grade for Deone Walker. He'll jump 8 to 10 points this year, I'd wager. Everything else is relatively fair. I think 80 is fair for Bishop. He still has a lot to prove, especially nationally. Bills fans are excited about him and know uis potential, he just has to show it consistently. McGovern could have a higher score. But he isn't too far off. I'd give him an 83 or 84 rating right now, with a good chance to grow if he has another solid season.

Injury prone or just unlucky. Either way, he has dealt with stuff like this his entire career. Some guys don't have bodies that can take the beating the NFL dishes out.

Just in the draft? I think his great picks (meaning they had at least one or two years of NFL elite play (top 5 or borderline top 5 at their position or role) are: - Josh Allen - Taron Johnson - Spencer Brown - Christian Benford - James Cook In this era we also had Tre White, Dion Dawkins, and Matt Milano, but they preceeded Beane. If by great you mean perrenial all pro and HOF caliber? That would be just Josh Allen. But I think that is a little too restrictive, personally.

I thought Palmer would be a difference maker, but he wasn't. It looks like injuries was a big part of that, but even before the injury he wasn't doing much consistently. Let's hope he plays awesome this year and contributes. If not, he'll be one of the worst free agent signings of Beane's career. Beane gave him $10 million a year and $18 million guaranteed. So far Palmer has done nothing to earn that.

There's nobody else it could be right now. Joe Burrow is talented enough, but keeps getting hurt and his team keeps missing the playoffs. Lamar Jackson always implodes in the playoffs, and his team missed the playoffs last year. Pat Mahomes has been part of a downright mediocre offense in Kansas City for three straight years, and his team missed the playoffs as well last year! Stafford is too old and just not as good as Allen, despite being the MVP and having a great year last year. So, it has to be Josh Allen by default. He is the only QB who has been consistently elite, available, and led his team to the playoffs to contend every year without a significant dropoff.

That's a lot for a guy who has never had more than 620 yards in a season.

The defensive line rotation is very common in the NFL. Anyone who thought that was just a McDermott thing was wrong. Leonhard came from a defense that rotated a lot and deployed defensive linemen in a wide variety of ways.

It was a good idea. Allen was injured his rookie year and forced out of the lineup. Those games he missed benefitted him greatly. He came back MUCH more prepared. He admitted that he essentially had no clue what was going on and was just winging it those first few games. Had Peterman not been such a disaster, Allen would have benefitted from sitting behind and learning for a handful of games before taking over. This is ALWAYS the approach that NFL teams want to take with their young QBs. It often does not work that way, but teams are always reluctant to throw their rookie QBs into the fire too early. This isn't a McDermott thing, it is an entire league thing. And it is the correct approach. We have seen COUNTLESS QBs get thrown to the wolves, lose their confidence quickly, and flame out of the league. Maybe they never had what it took anyway, but maybe they did if their careers were managed more intentionally. There is no way to know for sure. But it is a fact that coaches and organizations believe that acclimating them more slowly is a benefit to them. Anyone flaming McDermott for that (when most fans were perfectly fine with it at the time) are just being petty.

Sure, but he had a 1,000 yard season with the Raiders just one season prior to that.

Do WR reclamation projects ever work?

He was the QB for a team with a historic defense and elite running game. There are a lot of QBs that could have taken that team far. But all credit to Wilson. He maximized his opportunity with a really good situation. I always thought he was overrated, though. He was always in the conversation for MVP in those earlier years, and I thought it was ridiculous. He always crumbled when the team put more on his shoulders and got away from their proven recipe of running the ball and just managing the game and relying on that elite defense. So, it's a hard no from me. But he was very good for stretches of his career.