jahnyc

Entirely subjective, but I don't think I would put Edmunds in the top 25. Allen definitely would not.

10 Years After--I'd Love to Change the World Blue Oyster Cult--Astronomy Elton John--Funeral for a Friend Michael Schenker Group--Into the Arena Derek and the Dominoes--Layla (Eric Clapton and Duane Allman)

We can certainly include TE on the list of needs. One could make the argument that we have a need for a quality starter at every position on offense, other than maybe LT, QB and FB. Even at QB, we still need a veteran back-up.

Just brings us back to the same questions, which all relate to whether the Bills are putting enough around Allen to help him develop and succeed. This previously has been discussed on the board, but it does seem odd that the plan for his development in the first year has been completely botched, particularly since the Bills knew that Allen was raw coming out of college. The Bills used so much draft capital to move up and draft him. It does not make sense that they would then put him in a situation with a poor o-line, poor wide receivers, no QB mentor on the roster and an OC with a poor track record as an NFL OC.

Unfortunately, making the playoffs last year was a red herring and not indicative of the team becoming competitive on a consistent basis. This year, the team has hit rock bottom because of a huge amount of dead money and the purging of the roster. Other NFL teams have turned things around quickly, but I am not sure I can remember many other teams with the number of talent deficient groups that we currently have, such as the o-line and wide receiver, combined with a very raw rookie quarterback. In the near and long term, the overall situation is very uncertain for significant improvement. After all of these years of ineptitude, it is really difficult to be experiencing this level of poor performance and continue to be patient. I do wish that I was more confident in the abilities of McBeane to turn this around.

Does there have to be a relationship between culture and strategy? Can't you have both culture and strong/sophisticated strategy? I think the use of the word "trump" in this context is unfortunate and probably not what he meant.

The Daboll hire was critical to get right. It will be interesting to see if he can work well with Allen and help his development.

At this point, where are where we are and we need to devote whatever resources are necessary to develop Allen and provide the offense with skill players and a strong o-line. McBeane will have tremendous pressure to fix the roster next offseason with the draft and free agency (with a lot of available cap space). They deserve the pressure after stripping the roster, but they also should have the opportunity to do the rebuilding. McBeane also need to do whatever is needed at the coaching level to speed Allen's development. I have no idea what kind of a job our QB coach is doing, but if he needs help or is not the right person to develop, McBeane need to act. Same with Daboll. Significant assets were given up to draft Allen, and while he may be getting valuable experience playing this year, McBeane need take whatever actions are necessary to give him the best shot to become a quality NFL quarterback.

The problem is that there will be a bunch of teams with a lot of cap space next offseason, including the Colts, the Jets and the Texans, all of which have more cap space than we do. The Browns and the 49ers also have significant cap space for 2019. This means there will be significant competition for a limited pool of quality free agents, and I don't think that Buffalo will be as attractive a destination as compared to some of these other choices, particularly if the team and Josh Allen struggle this year. Each year, it seems that the pool of blue chip free agents gets smaller as teams sign their own to be free agents before they can hit the market. I don't think we can count on fixing most of our talent problems through free agent acquisitions in one offseason.

I am worried about Allen's accuracy throwing the ball. This was a well known issue prior to the draft, but if it does not improve, he (and the Bills) will have problems. I really hope this is fixable, but he looked awful today. Plenty of blame to go around, including play calling, wide receivers and o-line, but his lack of accuracy is my greatest concern at this point.

Specifically , for Allen, I would like to see that he can be accurate with his ball placement. For Edmunds, I hope to see that he learned from last week to be more effective in recognizing and defending passes over the middle as well as showing better instincts overall.

We are pretty far away from being competitive and I don't think it can be fixed in one offseason. We can feel better about the team's prospects if Allen and Edmunds show significant progress during the season, but I don't think this year's version of the Bills is as talented as last year's version of the Bears.

McBeane will need to show us that they know how to build a team, not just tear it down, which is the easy part. Their free agent signings this offseason and some of their personnel moves have negatively impacted my confidence in their abilities to re-stock the talent on this team. McBeane will have their opportunity, but the analogy to the Sabres rebuild led by Murray, and the possibility of a similar crummy outcome, does scare me.

The discouraging thing is that we still have one of the oldest rosters and not much young talent. Of course the development of Allen and Edmunds will be key, but other than White and Dawkins, who else do we have to watch develop this season? Seems to be a pipe dream to expect this team to suddenly improve, even next season, without a significant number of up and coming young players, which I don't think we have and another draft will not be enough to solve. Beane has his hands full, and his free agent acquisitions this offseason are not giving me much confidence in his abilities to assemble a quality roster of talented players.

Not really seeing many positives right now. This season is done after two weeks and the team has so many holes to fill next offseason. It shouldn't be about next year or the future at this point in a season, but, unfortunately, it is.

Assuming this is all true, it is kind of astounding how far off the Bills FO and coaching staff were about Peterman's ability to be a starter and the related determination to trade AJ.

They are both safe this year, but if the Bills are well below .500 this year, their trades and free agents signings will be closely scrutinized. The keys will be whether Allen and Edmunds show progress during the season and whether the free agent additions, particularly Star, Davis and Trent Murphy, play to the level of their contracts. Ultimately, it is about the talent, and I think Beane will get more scrutiny than McD. If our free agent additions from this past offseason look as poor as a group as they do after the first game, I think questions about Beane's ability to evaluate and identify talent will be well deserved.

This is legitimately concerning. Of all of the important fixes that were needed this past offseason (and there were many), a strong, creative OC was one of the things at the top of list. Way too early to assess Daboll at this point, but his past experience as OC in the NFL was always disconcerting. Landing with teams with bad offenses (Cleveland and Buffalo) is unfortunate, but he will need to make the team confident in his abilities and schemes this season.

Peterman may have many intangibles but his arm strength seems very weak (weaker than Brees). Is there a starting NFL quarterback with similar arm strength? I am not sure there is.

I thought I read that they were interested in McCown (Jets back-up QB and starter last year) and only turned to AJ when there were no other viable options. Signing McCown would have made sense as part of the overall plan.

I am worried about the poor planning and execution that went into this offseason for things that were under their control. Maybe they thought the fans would give them a mulligan for this season because we unexpectedly made the playoffs last season.

The real question is whether the players can get better as the season progresses, and I don't see it happening. It would be great if Allen shows his talent and improves as the season progresses, but I don't think the o-line will suddenly improve since they are all veterans and many of them were not re-signed by their prior teams (Vlad, Bodine, Newhouse). Miller and Groy are young veterans and they seem to have gotten worse. At other positions, we do not have young, talented players waiting in the wings that just need playing time. For example, at starting CB opposite White, we have Davis or Gaines, neither of whom should be starting with almost no depth behind them and certainly no up and coming young players. What obviously young, talented players do we have at WR, outside LB or DE?

Not trying be be revisionist, but the reality is that we miss the talent they represented, or maybe, more accurately, they are gone and we did not find adequate replacements or upgrades. That some of them became better players after they left likely is more on the Bills in terms of coaching or not surrounding them with same level of talent as their new teams.

I don't think many of us want Whaley, Sammy, Tyrod or Fitz back, but we do miss, at least in some fashion, the talent represented by players like Gilmore, Darby, Brown, Hogan, Woods and Goodwin. All of these players would be upgrades compared to what we have now. Even Dareus would be an upgrade, but not at the salary we were paying him. I get it that we could not afford to keep most of these players if we had wanted to, but that is just part of the poor cap management legacy of the prior front office.

Some thoughts below: 1. The front office and owners of the Bills really will test us this season. This potentially is a historically bad team lacking talent and depth with the prospect of starting a rookie QB because he may be the only real choice. It was great that we broke the playoff drought last year, but to then have the likelihood of an extended rebuilding process immediately following is tough with no guarantees of success. 2. Not sure if I have seen a team with so many units that need to be upgraded. WRs and O-line may only have one or two quality starters between them. No depth at LB or CB and we need a starting quality CB opposite White. Our DEs are non-existent and we have no depth at LB and probably need at least one additional quality starting LB. There are probably eight or nine starters who would not be starters on any other team. 3. As others have noted, it is easier to tear something down than build something strong and durable. I was among those who were very disappointed that we were not able to keep our second round draft picks and the first round of the third round pick. We needed these picks. If you factor in the trade for Glenn which was the equivalent of getting a second round pick, we gave up a lot of value for Allen. Obviously, if Allen is our franchise QB, it will have been worth it. 4. The Bills will have a lot of cap room next offseason, but will they be able to sign free agents? If Allen plays well and there is excitement about this future, then we may be okay. If not, the Bills will be a tough sell for free agents and we will have to overpay to get players here. 5. If today's game is any indication, Beane will have a lot of explaining to do about his free agent acquisitions this offseason. Davis seems to have not recovered from his injury last season, Murphy has new injury issues and our o-line additions are ineffective. Beane needed to find a starting CB opposite White and I don't think Davis or Gaines will be the answer. 6. Beane's player evaluation abilities will be under a microscope. The Coleman trade made no sense since Cleveland likely would have released him. Instead, we are now on the hook for his guaranteed money. The Bills made some good acquisitions last year and I am wondering if the they miss Gaines (who became the GM of the Texans this offseason). 7. I have no idea how we could have gone into this season with this o-line. There was little or no chance that veteran players like Vlad, Bodine, Miller, Groy Mills and Newhouse were going to suddenly improve. I understand that Woods needing to retire was unforeseen, but we needed to devote whatever resources we had into improving the o-line. Bodine and Newhouse are not the answer. 8. I don't think McD is a problem He coached well last season and I think he will be a good coach for the Bills when he has the talent. I hope Daboll will be the right choice for OC. He has not had much success in the NFL as an OC with some bad teams and it will be hard to make judgments here with the lack of talent on offense.