Tanoros

I think it’s important to look at what the roster actually was supposed to be this season, especially in the trenches, rather than judging strictly by what it became after injuries. On the D-line: We only got 64 snaps of Hoecht, but those snaps made it very clear why Beane signed him. He was explosive, powerful, and disruptive, exactly the kind of presence we’ve been missing opposite Bosa. Adding a healthy Hoecht to Bosa and an Oliver who came out red-hot in Week 1 had the real potential to give us one of the strongest defensive fronts we’ve fielded in years. No, we can’t say for certain what the line would have looked like over a full season, but it’s absolutely fair to say losing Hoecht changed the makeup of the defense. His early play suggested he was going to be a major upgrade against the run and a boost to the pass rush. Pair that with Bosa’s talent and Oliver’s fast start, and Beane clearly had built this line to be a strength. If anything, the problem wasn’t the plan, it’s that injuries wiped out the plan before it had a chance to take shape. On the O-line: The idea that this offensive line is “bad at pass protection” doesn’t match the actual data. According to SI’s evaluation of the 2024 season, with the exact same five starters we brought into 2025, the Bills: • allowed just 14 sacks, the fewest in the NFL • ranked among the top pass-blocking units by several analytic measures • posted one of the league’s better pass-block win rates • and received strong individual protection grades across all five positions These aren’t subjective observations, they’re objective league-wide comparisons. Buffalo’s O-line wasn’t just “fine” in pass protection last year; it was one of the most efficient and consistent lines in the league. So while they are indeed stronger in run blocking, calling them “bad at pass protection” simply doesn’t align with reality. It’s an emotional reaction, not a fact-based one. Big picture: Both the O-line and D-line were areas where Beane made deliberate, well constructed moves this offseason and before building the O-line. The offensive line has performed at a legitimately high level with these same five starters, and the defensive line had the pieces to be a true strength before injuries derailed it, especially with Hoecht flashing so much in his brief window.

I appreciate the detail you put into this, and honestly, I agree with several of the broader concerns, especially around the direction of Beane’s roster-building in recent years. But I think a few key areas need more context. Rousseau, for example, gets criticized heavily for sack totals, but he is one of the best run defenders and edge setters in the league. That’s not a small thing. He plays a different role than a pure pass rusher like Jaelan Phillips. And Phillips, for all of his talent, has a long injury history, which you also point out as a negative for other players. It’s tough to have it both ways. Rousseau may not be elite at one thing, but he provides consistent, high-volume, high-floor defensive play that fits how this defense operates. But yes, we do need an elite pass rusher and Beane has tried his Von, who looked good until he was injured, and again with Bosa who has looked great. As for the receiver contracts, I completely agree with you on overpaying free agent WRs. That’s exactly why teams with sustained success focus on drafting and developing receivers. If you lose them later, you get compensatory picks. If they hit, you get cheap production. This is probably one of the biggest areas where Beane drifted off course: too much emphasis on the defensive line and not enough investment in young receiver talent. Where I’d push back a bit is on the “dead weight” comment. Most of those players, Lawson, Jackson, Broeker, Spector, and others, are inexpensive depth pieces who know the system and can fill emergency roles when injuries hit. Every good team does this. It’s not poor roster building; it’s practical roster management. And in many cases, those signings actually help. Poyer this year is a clear example. I also fully agree with you about hiring from outside the organization. Promoting Brady and Babich made sense at the time, but the Bills are at the point where bringing in top external coaching talent should be a priority. This staff could benefit from fresh voices and new ideas, especially on offense. Regarding Frazier, though, none of us really know what happened. A lot of theories get repeated as if they’re fact, but unless someone was in the building, it’s all speculation. The same goes for the 13 seconds situation and whether McDermott overruled anything. Without details, it’s tough to draw clear conclusions. On injuries, I’m not sure it’s a training staff issue. The team has just been hit extremely hard the past few years with freak injuries, Achilles tears, pec tears, fractures, and so on. Losing Hoecht and Oliver alone dramatically changes the defense. Add in Milano, Phillips, Benford, and others, and it becomes clear that some of this is simply bad luck. Overall, I do agree with your main point: the early part of Beane’s tenure was strong, and the recent years have been more uneven. But I think the picture is more nuanced. There have been misses, but also strengths, and some issues (like injuries and scheme-specific roles) get placed solely on him even when they’re not entirely within his control. In my view, Beane built a high-floor team that consistently competes, but the roster has plateaued in part because he hasn’t hit enough home runs at premium positions like WR and EDGE in recent drafts. That, more than anything, is where the criticism is fair. I genuinely respect the thought you put into your post. I just think the truth sits somewhere between “Beane is elite” and “Beane should be fired,” and the real conversation is about recalibrating the approach going forward, not erasing what has worked.

The reality is that even the best coaching staffs and front offices go through down years. That alone isn’t a reason to move on. And sure, no one is saying Beane and McDermott are on the level of Reid and Veach, but the truth is, almost no HC and GM pair in the league are. What we do have is a team that stays in the conversation every single year and consistently gets close. That’s not something to overlook. The Bills have been right on the doorstep multiple times, and being that competitive for this long is incredibly rare in the NFL. It’s easy to take that for granted, but we shouldn’t. If we decide to make a change at GM and coach, the odds are far greater that we take a step backward than instantly improve. That doesn’t mean change is never justified, but it does mean we have to be honest about what the risk truly looks like. There isn’t a ton of room for improvement at the top, this team is already operating at a very high level, even with flaws. Assuming that a new GM and coach would automatically elevate us isn’t rooted in reality. It’s just not how the NFL works.

I’m not opposed to change if it truly makes us better, but I think we have to acknowledge that moving on from Beane and McDermott comes with a real risk, not of staying the same, but of getting worse. We talk about “wasting Allen’s years” now, but imagine falling back into being an 8 or 9 win team, or worse. That’s not some far-fetched scenario. That’s the most common outcome when teams start over. The reality is that with Beane and McDermott, we do have a legitimate shot to win it all every single year. Last year’s playoff loss to KC is a perfect example, it was a game of inches, and the officiating took more than a few of those inches away from us. That doesn’t mean the team was perfect, but it shows how thin the margin is when you’re consistently in the fight. Here’s how I look at it: If you knew with certainty that Beane and McDermott would win at least one Super Bowl with Josh Allen, would you be willing to be patient? Because we already know, without question, that they field a team every year that can compete with anyone. And no, it’s not only because of Allen. He’s incredible, but there’s a lot more that goes into sustained competitiveness than just having a great quarterback. If we decide to move on from this regime, the range of outcomes becomes much wider. Sure, we could luck into a duo that instantly elevates us. But there’s also a very real chance we stumble backward. There are far more franchises stuck in that cycle than there are consistently contending. As for me, I’m honestly still figuring out where I stand. I’ll always want the Bills to win a Super Bowl, especially with Allen. But at the end of the day, football is entertainment. I’m not going to let it ruin my day, week, or year. I simply don’t have the time or energy for that. What I do know is that since Beane and McDermott arrived, I’ve been thoroughly entertained. I appreciate having a team that’s competitive every week and always in the conversation. I’m content to see how it plays out while rooting for the best possible outcome.

One thing you may not be considering when you say ball control offense. Most of our injuries have occurred on defense, and the very nature of a ball control offense is to keep the defense off of the feild, which would mean less injuries, not more. A quick strike offense or just plain bad offense is what will put the defense on the field more. It was recently that we had some pretty good injury luck during the regular season. We all know that hasn’t been the case in the post season. But it’s only these last couple of years where things have been so rough during the regular season. I remember a time when people on this board were touting our awesome training facility as a reason we had less injuries. When it comes to injuries, I’m sure it’s a combo of many factors, and luck is certainly one of those factors.

I’m not saying not surviving, more what could have been. He looked amazing.

I hear you on a lot of this, and honestly I agree that Beane could have done a better job in a few key areas. Early in Allen’s career, the whole conversation was about protecting him and building a real run game, and Beane absolutely did that. The O line is the best it’s been in decades and the run game is actually a strength now. But I also think that came at the cost of the WR room. While we were investing heavily in the trenches and the defense, especially the D line, and O-line, the receiver group slowly fell behind. And you’re right: the D line drafting hasn’t been good enough for the amount of capital that went into it. Where I think we differ is how much that overshadows the rest. Because even with the roster flaws, this team is still competitive every single week. We can beat anyone in the league this season, and we’ve done that for years, that’s not something I’m willing to dismiss. And this year especially, the injuries on defense have been brutal. Losing guys like Oliver and Hoecht completely changes what the defense looks like. With both of them healthy, the front seven would look drastically different. Some of this season really has been bad luck, not just bad building. So yeah, the roster could absolutely be better. Beane has real misses that deserve criticism. But I can recognize that and still appreciate that we field a team every year that’s capable of making a run. That’s all I was trying to get across, we can want better without acting like everything is broken.

You didn’t say any of that in the post I responded to. Maybe you said it somewhere else, but it definitely wasn’t in the rant I quoted. I replied directly to that post, the one where you called Beane a clown, trashed half the roster, and acted like the last eight years never happened. If you want credit for giving out A plus grades, you might want to include those in the post you’re defending. Because what you wrote was the exact opposite, you said we only compete because of Allen, full stop, and everything else is “in spite of Beane.” That’s what I was responding to. And honestly, if you lived through the 17 year drought and still talk like this team has given you nothing but misery, that’s wild. If you didn’t live through the drought, that at least explains the lack of perspective. We can criticize Beane without pretending the Bills have suddenly turned into the 2008 Detroit Lions. There’s a huge difference between wanting better and acting like the last eight years never existed.

Reading your post, I had to double-check that I wasn’t somehow teleported back to the drought era, or maybe into a Raiders fan forum by accident. Because apparently being a top contender for the better part of a decade is now some kind of tragic disaster. Yeah, Beane is such a “clown” that the Bills have been one of the winningest teams in the league since he got here. Total embarrassment. How dare he. And of course, none of that matters because you’ve decided every draft pick is a bust, every contract is terrible, and every injury is his personal fault. I’m surprised you didn’t blame him for the weather too. Look, has Beane made mistakes? Obviously. Every GM does. If he’d pulled the trigger on a true WR1 for Allen recently, things might look a lot different right now. But let’s at least pretend to be fair, the guy brought back Cook on a great deal when half the fanbase was ready to ship him out. That didn’t magically happen on its own. What did magically happen, though, is that some Bills fans have forgotten what actual misery looks like. You know, the drought. The seventeen straight years of irrelevance. When “competing” wasn’t even in the vocabulary. Now we expect to make a deep run every single year, and that somehow equals “Beane is a joke.” Sure. Right. We all want a Super Bowl. But there’s a massive difference between wanting to improve and acting like we’re a bottom feeder. If you honestly think this franchise is some catastrophe under Beane, you might be confusing “legitimate issues” with “I’m frustrated so everything is terrible.”

It doesn’t look like anything egregious at all. Plus, Allen hasn’t shown over the years that he is dirty. He will play hard and go all out, but he isn’t dirty.

Perhaps you are right. But this is the play when all of the raucous started. Weird, because Heyward wasn’t acting out before this play.

No one was specifically talking about him playing today. He was drafted to be their future, they let Darnold walk, and JJ hasn’t looked good at all. This thread is about Justin Jefferson and posters are discussing him possibly wanting out because JJ doesn’t look good. The conversations has nothing to do with today’s game, besides Jefferson’s lack of comment after today’s game being the spark for this conversation. You’ve really missed the mark if you think all of this conversation is about one game with a backup qb.

You have to also add in the 3rd we gave up for Amari Cooper last year (3 points), and it was pre Bean, but it impacted Beane’s first draft and that’s the 3rd we gave up for Benjamin (3 points). Overall since 2018 we’d have the equivalent of 19 points towards receiver. Which is much closer to the average than 5. That’s not even factoring in all the other picks we gave up for Cooper, Diggs, Benjamin, which meant we had less resources for other positions, which in turn could impact future drafts. Overall, I think everyone agrees Beane should have emphasized receiver much more than he has. I’ve wanted a top receiver for quite some time, hoping that we would trade up for one. Every GM and team is going to have their own strategies and for whatever reason Beane has not valued drafting receivers high, which is so frustrating.

I know, I couldn’t believe they waited so long to pull him. Those are the tough decisions coaches need to make. You can’t expect players like Brown to pull themselves. He is the type that will go until he physically can’t or is pulled. I was stunned they left him in so long.

I think Bills fans can recognize that Brandon Beane drafts above league average overall while still having legitimate concerns about how he has handled the wide receiver position. Those two things don’t conflict. The main issue is that in a historically deep WR draft class, the Bills only took one swing with Keon Coleman. And now, with Coleman a healthy scratch and questions about his work ethic popping up, that decision looks even riskier. This was the exact kind of class where you either double dip or move up for premium, blue chip talent to support a franchise quarterback in his prime. To be fair, Beane did sign Curtis Samuel, and that deserves acknowledgment. But Samuel has yet to become a consistent focal point in the offense, and relying on one veteran plus a single rookie from a loaded class still left the WR room without the kind of depth and long-term investment this team needed. The frustration many fans have isn’t about Beane’s overall ability as a GM. It’s that wide receiver has been a recurring blind spot during an era where the Bills needed to be proactive, not reactive. Losing both Diggs and Davis in the same offseason should have been the moment to flood the position with young talent, especially given the board. Beane drafts well overall, but the criticism around wide receiver prioritization is completely valid. You can be a successful GM and still mismanage a key position group. And with Josh Allen at the center of everything this team does, wide receiver is not the place to take minimal swings.