Inigo Montoya

Hey Big Blitz, I'd bet you a hamburger you're wrong. Every year a couple of QBs become the pick of the litter and teams start to jockey for them. This year won't be any different. At least two QBs will go ahead of us.

1. Cards 2. 49's 3. Jets 4. Raiders 5. TB 6. Giants 7. Jags 8. Lions 9. Bills We are set at QB for now so we want as many teams as possible ahead of us in the draft to select a QB and let the non-QB players drop to us. By my reasoning there are at least four teams set at QB ahead of us, Cards, 49's, Jets, and the Lions. The Raiders are a wild card. Who knows what Chucky is going to do? He had words of encouragement for Carr last week but he might jump at a QB prospect if the right one comes along and they certainly have enough draft capital to move up in the draft order if he wants to. TB is a wild card too. With a new coach and Winston entering the last year of his rookie contract, this is the year the Bucs need to make a long term commitment to Winston if they are going to. I wouldn't be surprised to see them trade him away and go fishing for a replacement. This would be the best circumstance for the Bills because it adds another QB needy team ahead of us. I think the Giants and Jags both go hard after a QB this year. Eli is about finished and the Jags QB job is open. At a minimum we will likely have at least two QBs go ahead of us, and maybe one more team who trades up to get a QB ahead of us if a third solid QB comes out of the Combine. That would put us in the position of selecting the 6th non-QB off the board which is not a bad position. I wish there were more great QB prospects coming out of the college ranks this year to entice teams to trade up ahead of us and grab one. There always seems to be one or two QB who wow at the Senior Bowl and the Combine who increase their draft stock significantly. Lets hope a bunch of turning-pro college QBs blow the doors off everyone this off season, the Raiders ditch Carr, and the Bucs ditch Winston. That would be the perfect scenario for us. The more QBs selected ahead of us, the more value we have at our draft position.

If Coughlin thinks that picture means Founette and Yeldon are disrespectful and selfish, I wonder what Coughlin thought about Jalen Ramsey's little gem the other week when Ramsey was asked if he was worried about Doug Marrone's job security... “I ain’t worried about nobody but myself.”

Mayfield does look good. I don't feel any need to bash Mayfield because we drafted Allen. It is not a zero sum game, they can both be successful. It's not like we passed on Mayfield and took Allen instead. I think Mayfield is further ahead of where Allen is right now, but I believe Allen has a higher ceiling. Hopefully Allen reaches that ceiling in the next couple of years. Being a life long Bills fan, I can empathize with the long suffering Browns fans. I think both of our fan bases deserve a little time in the sun. As long as the Browns aren't playing the Bills, I wish the Browns and Mayfield good luck.

Sure he's a good guy, but he claps a lot. Can't have a head coach who's a clapper. I mean he did break the Drought last year. And he does manage to get guys to play for him even when everyone knows the season is lost. It is only his second year coaching and he is probably going to get better at his job as he gets more experience at it going forward. And I guess you can argue that he managed to squeak out 6 wins this year with the lowest payroll roster in the League and a rookie QB. Sure, he's a class act too, but, what about that clapping....

As the salary cap has gone up and teams are better able to resign their impending free agents, less and less talent is available in the free agency market. That is why we have seen such a sharp uptick in the number of trades in the NFL during the last few seasons, and why I think the amount of trades are going to continue to increase as teams realize it may be the best way to buff their rosters with the free agency market drying up. It has always been hard for the Bills to get free agency talent without paying through the nose for them. Buffalo is not a place most players want to play. When we are competing against other teams who can field a similar monetary offer but they also have a big market, a dome, good weather, or low / no state income taxes, that puts the Bills even further behind the eight ball. Buffalo is a great place to play football, you just have to get them here for them to figure that out. Just ask Shady. He didn't want to play here and would have never played here if he hadn't been traded. Now he sees what a great place it is to play. Beane does not have a lot of players left for trade bait with the Bill's roster stripped down to the studs this year. That's why I think we will start to see Beane trading away draft picks as the draft approaches (his only trade commodity) for offensive line and receiving help. You see quality players being traded for late round draft picks all the time. Here are some traded players and their trade compensation from just this year; RB Ty Montgomery 7th rounder WR Golden Tate 3rd rounder WR Demaryius Thomas 4th & 7th rounders OT Corey Robinson 7th rounder OT Shon Coleman 7th rounder C Brett Jones 7th rounder WR Tavon Austin 6th rounder Certainly not all of them are game changers, but they do represent a reasonable risk / reward ratio for the draft capital spent. We have a lot of money for signing these players to long term contracts if they pan out, money that we might have trouble spending in the limited free agency market. I bet Beane will target players with 1-2 years left on their rookie contracts who have shown some ability and start making calls to their GMs dangling our trade picks as bait. We have all of our draft picks plus an extra 4th, 5th, and 7th this year. With all the coaching changes and rebuilds that are going to happen this off season, (at least six, Jets, Bucs, Jags, GB, Browns, Cards) there may be a lot of teams looking to reshape their roster and they might value draft picks over the last regime's players. Just look at Oakland, Chucky has unloaded everyone for picks. If Beane can unload late round picks for proven NFL quality starters, I think he will jump on it rather than rolling the dice in the draft. If a trade gets done, look for Beane to lock them up on a longer term contract with all the cap space we have. He has definitely shown he is not afraid to make a deal. I am just not that optimistic the Bills will be able to get a lot done in free agency this year. Going forward, I think trades will replace free agency as the main way to build a roster outside of the draft, and I expect Beane to be all over it this off season.

Beat, don't eat the Phins Like old gas station sushi Violent Hershey squirts

You may be right, time will tell. I read a lot here and don't post often. Seems that this board is full of unbridled optimism when we win, and ready to eat rat poison after a loss. As always, I think the truth is in the middle. We have said for a long time that the Bills will go nowhere without a franchise QB. Allen didn't play well today but I think he has the best shot at being the franchise QB we've needed since Kelly retired. We have the cheapest payroll in the league right now because of all the dead money we ate this year and it shows. I think we missed Milano a lot today. Our defense is not the dumpster fire that many are making it out to be. There are pieces there to build with. A solid secondary and some good young linebackers. The offense.... well, that's a different story. We need help all over the place and hopefully we will have the resources to do something about it, but it will likely take more than just one year to make this team a contender. We are rebuilding, we all knew this year was going to suck. This is year one of the Beane Era. Let me repeat that, YEAR ONE. Give the man a chance.

Great points all. We need to shore up the run defense, it was clearly woeful today. They need to get some meat in the middle of that line who can gum things up. Latulelei clearly didn't bring it today. I'm not sure what the answer is, but we are not going to win if we can't stop the run. We definitely miss Milano in there Special teams has been woeful. Hauschka has been money for most of the year and I loved how Bolden attacked the ball and just busted up field as quickly as he could today, not dancing around. Crossman has been great for years, I'm not sure what is going on this year. One of the reasons we made the playoffs last year is that we went from being 22nd in the league in penalties to 10th in the league. I think this year we have taken a big step backwards. I don't know how much of that you can blame on the youth of the roster, but it is definitely an issue that needs to be addressed. I still think a lot of the issue is our young, cheap roster and that should get better over the next two years. Fingers crossed...

Forgive me for copying and pasting this from another thread, but it seems appropriate here as well. Allen and Edmunds were drafted because of their physical traits and potential. If Edmunds figures it out, he will be a league leading freak for years with his size and speed. Allen is in the same situation. Not polished coming out of college, but will be a baller if he develops with his physical attributes. Beane didn't draft Allen and Edmunds to win this year, he drafted them to win next year. Hopefully Beane is proven right. We all knew this was going to be a bad year for the Bills. I don't understand the despair on this message board when the Bills look bad during what is clearly a rebuilding year. We have no O-line, our rookie draft picks are playing like rookies, and we have no wide receivers, but dammit! we should walk into Foxborough and win right now... We now have someone who has a real chance to be our franchise QB, we are out of salary cap hell, and we have a full compliment of draft picks. Contrast that to where we were at the end of last season. Take a breath people.

Allen and Edmunds were drafted because of their physical traits and potential. If Edmunds figures it out, he will be a league leading freak for years with his size and speed. Allen is in the same situation. Not polished coming out of college, but will be a baller if he develops with his physical attributes. Beane didn't draft Allen and Edmunds to win this year, he drafted them to win next year. Hopefully Beane is proven right. We all knew this was going to be a bad year for the Bills. I don't understand the despair on this message board when the Bills look bad during what is clearly a rebuilding year. We have no O-line, our rookie draft picks are playing like rookies, and we have no wide receivers, but dammit! we should walk into Foxborough and win right now... We have someone who has a real chance to be our franchise QB, we are out of salary cap hell, and we have a full contingent of draft picks. Contrast that to where we were at the end of last season. Take a breath people.

I think last year was just a confluence of circumstances where the Bills had the draft capital and it was a QB rich draft class and Beane felt he had to make his move and grab one of the top QBs. I agree completely that the cupboard is bare on the rest of the offense. Not the optimal situation to throw Allen into. I was a "let Allen sit a year" guy at the beginning of the season. As things played out, I think the Bills had little choice but to play Allen, and in retrospect, I think I was wrong and playing Allen was a good move. He has gotten better as the year has gone on. He didn't look good today, neither did the rest of the team. I do think he is going to be a baller and next year should show us what we have when Beane is able to put some talent around him. I agree that it's time for Shady to go. Every time he touches the ball it is a loss or 2-3 yard gain. He was a great RB for years but I think he is at the end of his career. Grab a mid round RB in the draft who can catch the ball and keep Ivory to be the pounder. Spend what you have to in free agency money and in draft capital to put an O- line in front of Allen and give him an opportunity to develop. I think the O-line has got to be the #1 priority this off season, not WRs. Give Allen a few seconds to stand in the pocket and we can get by with average WRs.

I'm pushing 50 now and I remember him when I was a kid calling the Sabres' games on the radio. We'd put the hockey game on the TV and turn the TV volume down and listen to him call the game over the radio. True Buffalo icon. Get well soon Rick!!!

Bell in Indy makes sense. That's the Indy Way. Stack the offensive, ignore the defense. Just ask Peyton.

I agree row_33, but I think what we are seeing now is likely Allen’s floor, and we are comparing it to Tyrod’s ceiling, and they aren’t that far apart.

I'm so glad Benjamin is finally gone. At times this year the only way KB caught the ball was when Allen threw it hard enough for the ball to get stuck in his rib cage.

Of course I'd love to beat the Pats this Sunday, but in the big picture it really doesn't matter. It was a helluva run, but the sun is finally starting to set in Foxboro and the Bills are on the upswing. Maybe not next year, but definitely by the following year there will be a changing of the guard in the AFCE. It will be the Bills and Jets battling for the division title with the Pats and Phins wandering in the desert. I think the Bills will be the team to beat.

Agree 100% bills11. If you get a chance to rewatch that touchdown play, look at the pocket Allen has to throw from. It stood out to me because he never seems to have a chance to set up and deliver a "normal" pass. On this play he is actually able to set his feet, step into the throw, and he isn't about to get hammered a split second after he releases it. If Beane can put a quality O-line line in front of Allen and he has a real pocket to throw from, he is going to tear this league up.

If you watched the game today and didn't see a strong passing game from Allen, I just don't know what to say. The completion percentage is meaningless without context. There were drops as usual, passes thrown away that should have been thrown away, and even the passes that were simply incomplete the majority of them were accurate passes that the DB simply made a play on. I remember thinking as I was watching the replay of the Foster touchdown that Allen looked great standing tall in the pocket, a pocket which actually held up for him and allowed him to step into his throw and not throw it on the run and off balance for a change. If we can get an O-Line in front of him and give him a pocket to sit in he is going to tear this league up. This was by far Allen's best passing performance yet. The completion percentage doesn't tell the story today.

I am not a stat guy, but Allen had the usual WR drops on good throws and Allen threw the ball away several times when there was nothing there instead of forcing the ball into a bad situation. I think that was the right play. I thought he threw the ball really well today. Even balls that weren't "dropped" were on target and the DBs just made some nice plays. I think it was his best game throwing so far.

I'm always hesitant about getting the shiniest toy in free agency, it never seems to work out well and you always end up overpaying. Mario Williams, Suh, Haynesworth come to mind, but I'm sure there are others. This team has lot of holes. I'd rather get a bunch of solid young NFL players coming off their rookie contract than a couple of over priced all stars. We are not just one or two players away from contention, we need a lot of help on this roster. Continue to draft strong, bring in good quality lunch pail type players on reasonable contracts, and build the right way for the long term.

No, thankfully, my father’s soul is now at rest. I’m married to Buttercup’s hotter, younger sister, Cinnamon. ?

That was definitely my best day. I avenged my father, rescued a princess, and became the next Dread Pirate Roberts. The day the Bills win the Super Bowl will be my second best day...

As a long suffering Bills fan I've never liked Brady, but there is no knocking the guy's ability to quarterback. It will be a good day in the Montoya household when he finally decides to hang up his cleats.

I think he just lost his will to compete. Not sure if he has some personal issues that he's dealing with, maybe he's battling depression and feels lost and just can't make himself care about football right now. Maybe the money was his primary motivation to play football and he thought he had enough and was set for life and didn't want to risk his health anymore, ala Albert Haynesworth. Who knows what the real reason is? What's clear to everyone is that we didn't get the same KB that played in Carolina. I'm glad the Bills finally moved on.