Seoulofstone

Last year Bills averaged 16.8 pts per game. This year, this year 19.3 with 9 worse teams in the league. Gradual improvement. teamrankings.com/nfl/stat/points-per-game

Ok. But they won a SB that year and then got MORE in return the following year from LA. Ealy was a disaster but like I said they have so many comp picks it barely makes a difference. They are in a position to afford to take a gamble because of the stability of their organizational model. They aren't leaving themselves without draft capital or sailing close to the cap. Anyway I enjoyed this but it's time for tacos On topic- Preston Brown is not the answer.

How is their cap space? When was the last time BB used a future 1st to pick up a player? He plays the comp pick game to perfection so he nearly always has extra picks anyway. Example-release Jamie Collins pick up comp 3. Collins misused at Cleveland. Cut. Pat's pickup on waivers. Best NE LB this year?

Sure you can push back money but in the end the bill comes due. Glad you asked. The responsible way to run a franchise is through the draft retaining the best players. NE has been doing this for years. It creates an environment of stability.. The irresponsible way is to go Bill OBrien and give up future draft picks to win now and mortgage the future while at the same time failing to achieve a SB. 3 years ago LAR and HT had great players and a ton of cap. Now they can say their teams have looked good during that time but they didn't win. Whoever picks up the job when they leave will have to tear it all down to have a chance to reset. That is the situation McD inherited. That's why it's unfair to assume McVay would have walked in and taken the Bills to a Superbowl. HC gets to choose O or D. Obviously fans want O but then our job isn't resting on the outcome is it? As a Bills fan that saddens me.

Right but equally it could have been a complete failure right? McVay is absolutely the exception to the norm. Even he walked into a team boasting the best RB and DT in the league with an enormous cap space? Since then they have made a bunch of flashy trades given out some bad contracts- Goff, Gurley for win now at the expense of the future. Now they are in cap hell and they aren't a contender. The first time he played BB he got embarrassed. How would he have done year 1 in Buffalo? Playoffs you think? They need to set up an infrastructure first. I completely agree that they need to invest in O. I think most people on this board would agree, the only exception being pass rush. I know that you won't accept ending the playoff drought as significant. But contrast the Bills future with the Rams. One team has scope to be better, the other has no wiggle room with the cap and FA, a retiring LT with no high draft capital, a broken RB and wishy washy QB. It was fun for the fans while it lasted but how many more SBs did McVay win from a much better starting point?

Agree with Dareus and Sammy. Do you think that 5th year option wasn't picked up to send a message? Do you think other coaches would have done a better job of bringing the players together and building an identity than McD? I realise it's conjecture just Interested in your thoughts. Could Mahomes have been a disaster without Andy Reid? With the lack of offensive weapons available to the Bills have resulted in the same outcome as what happened at the Rams considering the presence of the Patriots in division? If the Bills had been dire in year 1 would that coach have kept his job? Would the immediate lack of success have resulted in a continuation of the downward spiral of the franchise. I'm just saying the trouble with a sliding doors scenario is that what worked elsewhere might not have had the same results here. I guess we will never know My thing is I think it's better to be content with improvement than be wistful about something that can't be changed anyway when there is no guarantee that those choices would have worked out any better.

You've genuinely piqued my curiosity though. If you were Pegula, what would you have done? Sean Mcvay? Draft Mahomes? Retain Gilmore? What of Dareus and Sammy? How would you have managed the cap? What would your minimal expectations have been in the next 3 years?

Wow pedantic OK. Firsttime coach, although with regards to the Gilmore situation that you are so hung up over he was barely in the building -so very much a rookie HC.

Read carefully. I agreed that (in hindsight) they should have got more than nothing for Gilmore. Where we differ is that you think he would have got a 1st where i think it would have been less. It doesn't diminish the point though. He should have fetched something. If that worst case scenario happened (from McDs perspective) he would also leave a healthier cap and a younger team having achieved something as a rookie head coach.

I get that fans want better. I do. The Bills look unconvincing for a 6-3 team. Casual fans want to see Mahomes at QB, Julio at WR, Mack at DE. I mean who wouldn't? I do think in hindsight getting absolutely nothing for Gilmore looks bad. But its hard to criticise without context. McD coming to an old underachieving team in cap hell made decisions which upset Bills fans. He hasn't been forgiven for those decisions and won't be until fans see success. A lot of people are all or nothing and they perceive gradual improvement as failure because they compare what they have to the very best. Except that they aren't anymore are they? Because of tough decisions like Gilmore. And the dead cap sacrifice last year. If McD fails the rest of this year and the team doesn't make the postseason then he is let go, he will still have broken the playoff drought and leave behind a much younger team with a strong D and with cap space.

Because it's not enough to make progress? If he gets to the playoffs this year that's twice in 3 years after a 20 year hiatus for a rookie head coach going to a serially underachieving team in cap hell. But yeah obviously hes doing a terrible job.

@JoshAllenHasBigHands Funny how this has turned from a Preston Brown thread to a criticism of McDermott thread. I see a few people with agendas second guessing past events with the help of hindsight. Maybe with hindsight tag and trade might have worked. I'm not willing to agree that someone would have given a first. Maybe-but its pure speculation. Clowney, Clark and Ford were all proven assets on contending teams. Gilmore had good and bad flashes on a non-contender. Would it have been preferable had he not gone to NE? Absolutely. Should they have let a guy who many now consider to be #1 CB in the league go in FA? Absolutely not, although we shouldn't ignore here that the Bills were close to the cap and it appears that McD didn't want to keep him. However, Is it really a given that he would have done as well as he has had he gone to any other team than NE? @BADOLBILZ To your point of weakness on the part of McD I would say that it shows the opposite. Due to brave decisions removing beloved Bills icons in his first year as a rookie head coach -(Watkins, Dareus, Gilmore), McD was able to end the drought and build a team that he wanted to represent him. You are basing your criticism of those moves on what those players went on to become rather than on what the Bills went on to become. That tells me everything about where your loyalties lie.

Comp pick at the end of season if he doesn't fit though. That alone might be worth it

He was picked 11 overall and CBs seem to slot into the Bills secondary so well. However I don't think they will get a chance on waivers.

Bucs also just released Vernon Hargreaves cb former first rounder.

He's a reclamation project and an FA at year's end. Only worth a 6th without a contract and considering his salary

The trade up for Josh is looking pretty good with benefit of hindsight.

I bet Carolina would let all-pro Daryl Williams go for a third. FA at the end of this year when he could be extended or let go with the likelihood of recouping a good comp pick. He started the year at LT (where he sucks) and has been filling in at RG, but RT has always been his strength. Don't know if McB see that as a position of need though.

Joe Marino on locked on Bills was talking about how Carolina picked up Jared Allen for a 6th in their 2015 Superbowl run. If you want something similar how about Ryan Kerrigan from the Redskins? They're resetting anyway. Some edge help for a low pick looks good to me. With regards to future seasons I was on the Chargers forum where there is some chatter that they think Bosa will want a big contract next year but money is low. Makes you think....

Complete nonsense. Don't confuse franchise success with individual performance. Ryan this season; 6 games 2011 yds, 15 TDs 7 ints, 72 comp %> clearly playing at a remarkably high level. Newton (playing injured) 2 games 572 yds 0TDs 1 int. 56 comp %> had no run threat because of injury completely changing his level of threat. Admittedly poor but he's had numerous huge single-handed wins against impressive D's since his MVP year in 2015 including @ philly, Minnesota NE and Baltimore. He regularly has 300 yard games despite a very average cast of WRs. People want him gone because they don't like how he comes across, there is unlikely to be a fanbase in the league that would be excited about acquiring him, but he's a pretty long way from useless.

He was being played at LT. He was really bad like Matt Kalil bad. He was moved to RG to cover Trai Turner injury and still hasn't looked great. The 2nd team all pro he got at RT was a season he had a ton of help. Not looking good after losing last year to ACL 2 fumbles against TB in week 2. 1 in week 6. Abysmal. Completely changes momentum.

I preferred Risner. Anyway if they play Cody in his position he could turn out really well. There has been a bit of a thing the last few years for playing newly drafted OL out of position. Play to his strengths.

Cam played the first two-both Losses. Kyle got his first start against Saints scrubs in week 16 last season. 1 W last year 3 this year..

He just played two good pass rushes in Texas and Jacksonville too. He works with Josh under the same QB guru. They're good friends apparently. Good luck to him and all the young QBS.

Jeudy aside there will be some very good WRs available in late RD1, maybe even RD2. I'm thinking I prefer one of Higgins, Huggs, Shenault, Lamb pick to the DE choice once Young and Espeneza go off the board. I also quite like the Bills picks on Drafttek of Throckmorton, since Ford isn't the answer at RT.