NORWOODS FOOT

I generally agree. We need Brady to draw up schemes that leverage the unique skills of our players. I still hope McBeane lands a high level deep threat at WR in the next year or so (one defenses truly fear) but I hope Brady maximizes the talent he has at his disposal. I’m confident that Coleman has enough juice to do some real damage if used well. I want to see a smash mouth running game and an A level deep threat added in the future.

2 - Ladd McConky, WR, Georgia 2 - Roman Wilson, WR, Michigan 3 - Peyton Wilson, LB, North Carolina State 4 - Isaac Guerendo, RB, Louisville 5 - Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, C, Georgia 5 - Mekhi Wingo, DT, LSU 5 - Javon Solomon, EDGE, Troy 6 - Joshua Karty, K, Stanford 6 - Keaton Bills, G, Utah 7 - Josh Proctor, SAF, Ohio State

i’m with you on this one. In a pre-draft post I talked about both Xavier Worthy and Keon Coleman. I had good things to say about both of them, but when we passed on Worthy, I was pissed. It’s not even so much that I was mad about passing on that player in particular. It’s just the complete lack of a coaching philosophy that builds around the strengths we already have. Look, if Josh Allen and Keon Coleman lead us to a Super Bowl win I’ll crawl down the street in front of the parade wearing a tutu and repent with loud wailing. But you have a QB with possibly the strongest arm the league has ever seen that can move around and buy time. So dear God, load your roster up with wide receivers that can kill it on the second and third level of the defense. We already have a couple of tight ends to take care of the underneath stuff as well as a running back that can catch. I think that’s a better way to what they’re doing. we have a stubborn defensive minded head coach that is fairly good at figuring out how to stop offenses, but I really don’t think that he knows how to build one that can compete with the best offensive of minds in the game.

I’ll add my voice to the chorus: let’s pass. I’m particularly excited to see what our undrafted free agents can do. From what I’ve seen, you could probably plug Keaton Bills in there right now, and he would be serviceable. So I’m excited to see how he develops under professional level coaching.

We don’t have the space this year. It may be possible to add someone of Debo’s stature next year, but I would first: 1) want to see how Coleman develops and know what his full potential is, and 2) go after other pass catchers whose skill sets can beat me maximized in conjunction with the other receivers on the team. Im more inclined to find that talent in the draft, but you never know.

You may be right, but that said, Josh apparently had a “wishLIST of receivers,” as opposed to just Coleman. That list could have consisted of MHJ, Nabers, Odunze, Thomas and Coleman. This would have made Coleman the choice by default. I think it more likely to have included one or two more names, because how else would Beane have felt comfortable to trade down if there was only one name left? I would bet good money that Josh’s list include at least one, if not both, of Worthy and Pearsall, in addition to Coleman.

Does Josh still care? When he grows his beard he looks like late-stage Jim Morrison. I’m worried. 🙃

I like this game a lot. The only thing that would make it better is if we actually had to make the picks when the Bills were in actually on the clock. More difficult to pull off but that would be awesome. As it is I’ll try to my draft in the next day or two.

But not desperate enough to use more draft capital… 🤔 But don’t worry, this guy is slow… like JERRY FREAKING RICE!!!

Honestly, start planning years earlier to raise the probability of having emerging playmakers around Allen. Next best, take multiple cracks at playmakers in this year’s draft. Next best, take one guy and hope to beat the odds. Last option, do nothing. McBeane did one step up from nothing. Nice guys. Decent professionals. But they are squandering our franchise QB and Super Bowl chances. It’s a bummer.

🫘 Here are three beans. I smashed it! This comment rulz! I love every word!

i wonder why they held off on that one… probably $ stuff I haven’t looked into, but he is the sore thumb

Damn, Beane is gonna have to figure out how to get that 7th rounder back.

I think we can only know for sure that they had Coleman higher than Legette (knew Carolina was taking him) and McConkey (didn’t pick him when they had the chance). They didn’t know who KC or San Fran would pick when they made the trade. Theoretically they may have had Worthy and Pearsall higher.

I’m not sure Collins is a lock. Hoping some of these young-bloods beat him out actually

Really glad we got Xavier Johnson (I’m a big Ohio State fan) and Keaton Bills (watched him dominate in a game a few years ago and hoped we would draft him).

Allen was right about Kincaid and I’m glad he’s happy, but yeah, I wouldn’t be abdicating making selections to him if I were the GM. I hope to hell that Coleman is amazing, but I don’t think he will be a guy that will command double teams (hope I’m wrong) and I think we may even have to scheme to put him in favorable situation (hope I’m wrong). You really wanted the other way around, players that the opposing coaches have to make adjustments to account for. the more of those guys you have the more trouble you give the opposing team. And then you can even scheme to put them in more favorable positions and leverage their special talents. That’s where things get really fun.

Here’s the thing some people don’t want to accept: There really are some people in other walks of life that are better evaluators of talent than people running NFL teams. It’s a statistical reality. They just don’t end up working in the NFL. There are people off the street that would be better than me at doing my job. No doubt. Some people just can’t seem to fathom this and can’t accept that such fans would feel frustrated. They get all sensitive and rude. Such is life. The year we picked Antoine Winfield I was screaming for Antoine Winfield. That was awesome. The year we picked Dante Whitner I was screaming for Haloti Ngata. That sucked. The year we picked Aaron Maybin I was screaming for Clay Matthews Jr. That sucked. The year we picked CJ Spiller I also wanted Spiller and was wrong right along with the Bills. The year we picked Elam I was screaming for Woolen. That kinda sucked. So as you can see, some fans have a better sense for talent and it’s hard to watch the team end up making lesser choices. PS I would have taken McConkey at 33 this year.

Come on guys! Don’t be so mean. I have a Patrick Mahomes shaped hole in my heart and it’s bleeding. Don’t hurt me more! 🙄 i’m talking about teambuilding strategy, how we do it how the Chiefs do it and why they beat us. I would hope they’re having similar conversations at One Bills Drive. So maybe they’re crying too? I think the real loser mentality is saying that not winning a Super Bowl is good enough. But that’s just me. I like championships.

that’s what I find so intriguing about Xavier Worthy. I think his production may not show up as much in the stat sheet at least not under his own name.

i’ve heard about some nebulous character concerns with AD Mitchell, and that he has diabetes type one and does not manage it well. I hope that if we select one of the other two guys, you mentioned, they can help stretch that spacing for us. Hell, maybe Franklin will end up being able to do it better than worthy. That would be fantastic and I’d be happy to eat my words.

A fair point. But his speed is special. And if you prepared to leverage it schematically, it can have a huge effect on the rest of your offense. That’s my projection anyway, and I’m gonna be watching to see if that’s how it actually plays out.

I think Beane is a A- general manager. He’s quite excellent in many ways. But there is a margin of difference between how he constructs this team and how McDermott coaches it and what Andy Reid is doing. And that’s what I’m interested in. What is that difference and why does it seem, so decisive and leading to these outcomes?

“If you think you can do better, you should be a GM!” Right. And if you don’t like the state of the country, you should be president… “You’re being dramatic!” Cool. This is how I’m a fan of the Bills, and I’m not sorry. 😂 Continuing on… The Bills may never win a Super Bowl, but that’s the standard that I’m comfortable holding them to. In my mind, for a GM/coach to be truly successful here during their tenure they need to win at least one championship. This is the NFL, and the margins are razor thin. We keep being edged out by Kansas City. And I don’t think it’s just because they’re lucky. I don’t even think it’s just because of Mahomes. I think it’s for a lot of reasons. And I think I can identify one of the main ones. The Kansas City Chiefs evaluate players in a fundamentally different way than the Bills front office. And then they coach and scheme using those players differently as well. Simply put, the Kansas City Chiefs value special traits higher than we do, and they prioritize using those traits in schemes that creatively leverage and amplify their effect. Let’s dissect the Xavier Worthy pick as the latest example. Xavier Worthy is the fastest player in the NFL. When Xavier Worthy runs a go route he is going to be faster than any man trying to cover him. That puts a huge amount of stress on a defense because he can beat his man on any given play. And it doesn’t matter if he catches or drops the pass, the defense still has to chase him down the field. This is also going to require that the safety on his side of the field keeps an eye on him and takes a deeper drop if he runs a go route or even a deep post. He’s going to open up the rest of the field for all of the other skill position players. His presence alone is going to force NFL defenses to skew their coverage in a way that they don’t have to nearly any other week. If a defense wants to try to counter these wider spaces, they’re going to have to drop linebackers further into coverage. If you have a good running game, and even better a running quarterback, you’re going to have bigger chunk plays, and more success. It doesn’t matter that Xavier Worthy is not a perfect prospect. What matters is that he’s going to put every single defense he goes up against in a bind, and Patrick Mahomes and Andy Reid are going to exploit the hell out of it. And this could’ve been our advantage. Stretching a defense’s backend coverage would have had a positive effect for every single one of our skill position players. Even if we have less than optimal players, they would’ve had more space to work with. And it’s this kind of strategic thinking that the Chiefs have shown time and time again to be masters of. Can you imagine the strain it would’ve put on a defense to have the fastest man in the NFL paired with the quarterback with the strongest arm in the NFL. It would’ve been imposing a nightmare on other teams. Instead of doing that we gave Kansas City that power. I’d love to be wrong about all of this. But I keep watching Buffalo beat their head against the same old walls and I think this philosophical schematic issue is one of the reasons why. This whole Xavier Worthy trade situation puts the issue in high definition. Beane and McDermott looked at this player and said no thank you let’s trade down. Andy Reid looked at this player and says I have to have him we’re trading up. Who are you gonna bet on making the better call? In my opinion this is one of the main reasons that we’re stuck where we are.

IDK They got Worthy, we are already toast