Cash

Who are we cutting to fit all these new weapons under the cap? It sounds great but maybe a little bit of a pipe dream for next year. I'd like to see us utilize the talent we have. Right now, I'd say our best 5 skill position guys are Shady, Watkins, Gillislee, Clay, and Felton. Assuming the wishbone is out, that means our best lineup would be Shady/Gillislee at RB, Felton at FB, Clay at TE, Watkins at WR, and either Hunter at WR or O'Leary at TE. Neither one of those last two sucks, but I don't think any of us feel comfortable with them as starters, so adding talent at skill positions should be a priority. I just don't think it's realistic to think that we'll go from WR-starved to WR-strong in one offseason, especially with our cap situation. I'd be cool with signing Marty B, but count me out on Cook. That guy is an athletic freak who's really bad at football. Ditto Gragg.

Not counting special teamers, and not counting David Johnson twice*, a total of 57 players made it on the AP list and 48 on the PFF list. That's a little under 2 per team on the AP side and only 1.5 per team on the PFF side. I don't think it's necessarily fair to draw conclusions about the overall talent level based on not getting enough players into such small pools. Especially since the voting (more so on the AP side) is heavily biased by the team's record. (And, looking at the overall results, it seems biased by media market/exposure as well - the Giants had the most AP All-Pros!) The Bills were one of 8 teams to get no players on the PFF All-Pro team, which isn't great. But that set of 8 also includes (weak) playoff teams the Texans and Lions. (The Lions didn't get any All-Pros on either list.) Fifteen teams didn't have any first-teamers on either list - including the Dolphins, Packers, and Saints. The Saints defense stinks but I defy anyone to rationally say they don't have talent on offense. And yet, their only All-Pro was Cam Jordan on the PFF second-team. So yeah, despite these results, I continue to believe that this team has talent. Probably not better than 10-6 or maybe 11-5 talent with good coaching, but talent nonetheless. I don't feel like the team was well-coached overall. Probably about a B or C on offense (F through the first 2 games), and a D on defense. That got us a 7-9 record, with a chance to win in almost all of the losses. We outscored our opponents by 21 on the year - 13th best in the league. Upgrade to A or B coaching overall, and I think we're a playoff team. *For some reason, the AP has David Johnson as 1st team "flex" and 2nd team RB. I call BS on that. Once a guy makes it at flex, shouldn't he be off the board for the positions that feed into flex?

Pats fans complaining about someone else whining too much? All I ever hear from Pats fans is whining. Even after wins! And they have absolutely no self-awareness. Talking more about my coworkers here than PatsFanNH.

2016 Tyrod >> 2015 Osweiler. And 2015 Osweiler got 4 years, $72 million. That means 2016 Tyrod can reasonably expect at least that, probably more, if we cut him. If I'm his agent, no way do I accept a restructure less than $20 million per.

The strongest argument that we underachieved is that we had 9 potential pro bowlers - 2 straight up and 7 alternates. Typically the teams at the top of the standings get a lot of "straight ticket" votes, so for a middling team to get that many is pretty impressive. There is talent on this team, especially on defense. I'm of the mindset that better coaching alone can get the D to average at least. I'd like to see a mixed bag of resource allocation in the offseason - we really need better depth at WR and TE, and QB should be a consideration even if Tyrod is retained.

During the game, I will root for the Bills. But I won't be upset if they lose, because it makes a Rex firing more likely. I don't particularly care about the draft position. In the unlikely event that Rex is fired before the game, I will 100% be pulling for a win.

Decided to vote a week early because my mind is made up at 7-8. Fire Rex. The punt was inexcusable, and a fireable offense. Sometimes quarter to quarter. I don't know that I've ever seen a team this inconsistent. We are capable of extreme highs and lows in all three phases. And that averages out to mediocre.

Our only chance was to go for it. If we didn't make it, we would've lost. But going for it still would've been the correct decision, and most of us wouldn't "roast" Rex for going for it. There's no way to expect the D to stop Miami's O at that point. Punt or get stopped, you're eliminated either way. Go for it, you've got a chance.

Totally agree. Before yesterday, I was sort of in favor of keeping Rex if we went 9-7, and maybe even if we went 8-8. Now, he has to go. The punt was a disgrace. Given the ways our offense and our defense were playing, it is completely indefensible. I'd be fine with promoting Lynn, or hiring an up and coming coordinator (a Hue Jackson type, just hopefully more successful in his first year). I'd prefer to have some continuity in the offense - including TT's option being picked up. And frankly, there's plenty of talent on the D already. Maybe not top 5, but we should be better than this. It's the coaching. It reminds me of the Chan Gailey years. Whether the D coordinator was that make a wish kid for the first two years or Wannstedt for the third, the big problem was coaching. One year later, Pettine takes largely the same talent and turns it into a great defense. One year after that, Schwartz takes the same talent in a vastly different scheme and turns it into an even better defense. We've lost some talent since then, but not enough to account for this kind of collapse.

First let's institute a rule where if a coach walks away from his contract, he has to pay back everything he's earned, including apparel deals and endorsements.

Not voting until the season's over. If we go 9-7, I think probably keep him. If 7-9, probably fire. 8-8, also probably fire, but we shall see. I do think that even if he's kept, he should be quietly encouraged to let his brother seek greener pastures. Basically if it looks like the team has quit on him, fire him. It did pretty much look like that against Oakland and Pittsburgh, but if they close out with 3 straight wins, then it's hard to say the team quit on him.

Everyone knows you can't win with a mobile QB, so therefore the Texans should keep playing (and paying) this classic pocket passer.

1.) Whaley doesn't negotiate the contracts, Jim Overdorf does. 2.) I agree with you about the giving away of picks, but I do wonder how much of that comes from above him. I still tend to think the Sammy trade was marketing based. I have no proof.

I'll bite. It does seem like there's something to the idea that Rex's D completely needs a "coach on the field" at safety to handle all the complicated checks, or maybe it needs one at safety and another at LB. But if that's the case, then Rex needs to loudly and frequently tell his GM to go get him more than one safety who can fill that role! I'm not convinced that the Williams injury is really that critical - it makes just as much sense that we happened to play 4 bad offenses in a row, and that also coincided with a random streak of good play by the D. But if it is all about the Williams injury, then that, to me, is on Rex. He's the one who knows his scheme and its requirements. He's the one running practices, who can tell who is capable of running the D and who isn't. He knows which safeties he's had in the past who "got it", and can suggest those guys to Whaley.

He looks great, but from a team-building perspective, it doesn't make a lot of sense to draft a WR in the first when any 2 of these are true: 1.) You don't have an established QB 2.) You've already spent heavily on a WR 3.) You're more than 1 piece away I think all 3 are true right now. Good WRs are important, but they basically come around every year, and if they pan out, they need to get PAID. So if we're going to trade Sammy, or we're sure we'll let him walk rather than sign him to big bucks, a guy like Davis would make some sense. Or if we're in a spot where Davis makes us a contender for the 3-ish year window where we have both him and Sammy, that would be a great move. But I think we're a ways away from there.

Very good breakdown of the situation, along with your prior post. We'll see how the season turns out, but if it keeps going south, I'd favor a "burn it to the ground" approach. Fire the coaching staff (I could go either way on GM - I tend to think Whaley's faults might not be his fault; see below), let Gilly walk, let Woods walk, don't exercise Tyrod's option, sign only guys who don't count for the comp pick formula, and trade down in the draft as much as possible - preferably for 2018 picks. The new coach comes in with an understanding that there's no pressure to win in 2017 and we do a full-on rebuild, which we haven't done since... Gailey, maybe? Ever since the no-playoff streak got long enough to be a thing, the Bills have been in "win now" mode every year, because they know they can't sell rebuilding to an already depressed fanbase. But if ever there was a time for it, it would be with new ownership. Great post, and I totally agree. I think Whaley is a good GM in terms of scouting/acquiring talent - both in the draft and in the pro ranks - but the organization has never seemed to have a coherent team-building vision. I don't know if that falls on Whaley, or if it's the situation many fear where Russ Brandon is dictating moves to sell tickets (Sammy trade being a prime example), or if it's something else.

Yeah, the last few (3 or so?) weeks, I've focused on Hughes a fair amount while watching the game, and he's been pretty invisible. Earlier in the year, it seemed like he was playing great, even if he wasn't necessarily getting sacks. Forcing a hurried throw or forcing the QB into the waiting arms of another pass rusher are great plays that don't show up on the stat sheet for Hughes. But it seems like it's been a while since he was making those plays. I have no idea what the reason is - injury? scheme? effort? - but it's definitely a big part of our defense falling off a cliff.

Serious question: if his problems stem from sickle-cell anemia, how can he ever get "healthy"? That's a genetic trait that he presumably has had his entire life. So what changed this year, and what would change going forward? I don't know a ton about sickle-cell. As for Michael Floyd, I'd probably be in favor of claiming him, maybe just in the hopes of getting a comp pick when he leaves in the offseason. But then again, it's not my $1.3 million paying for the hope of an extra late round pick. I don't know much about Floyd's off-field problems, other than that he was recently arrested for DUI. If memory serves, he's never had a season worthy of his draft status, but he was pretty good last year. If Floyd could get his act together and be the guy from 2015, I'd rather have him than Woods at the same money.

Thanks for the recap! My reaction: zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

That would be a slight upgrade: http://www.pro-football-reference.com/teams/buf/ Not counting this year, we've had five 6-10's, three 7-9's, three 8-8's, two 9-7's, and one each of 5-11, 4-12, 3-13. This year will be between 6-10 and 9-7, but 6-10 will remain our most common record during the streak no matter what.

Gleason is kind of a hack, IMO. As Rumblings pointed out, he buried that allegation (of a verbal fight between Hughes and Wolfman Rob) deep in his article, and provides no source or background. He doesn't even allege that he has a source. Did anyone else report about this alleged fight, beyond just regurgitating Gleason? If so, I haven't seen it. Now, Hughes having beef with one or more of the coaches is totally plausible, and him getting less PT as a disciplinary measure is also plausible, but that doesn't make either one true. It's more plausible to me that Hughes' PT was reduced because he hasn't been playing as well lately (true in my amateur opinion) and maybe has been dogging it in practice.

1.) ABNE 2.) Then, anyone but the Cowboys 3.) I've always liked Green Bay 4.) Any underdog/unlikely candidate that is similar to the Bills - the Vikings are a good example here

Exactly. From what little I've seen of JimmyG, he seems a decent bit above the previous Pats backups that flamed out (and don't forget to include 3rd round pick Kevin O'Connell in that list). And maybe he's good enough to succeed with the Pats' hefty support network around him, but I'm not seeing him as good enough to drag us (or the Browns, e.g.) out of the dumpster. However, if I'm wrong, and he's as good as some people think (one of the posts in this thread compared him to Aaron Rodgers!), then I think it's very unlikely that the Pats make him available for trade -- especially within the division. What are the odds that 1.) He's really that good, and 2.) The Pats are wrong and think he's just mediocre? 1%? I don't think that chance is worth the cost. And keep in mind that the cost would likely be both draft picks and a fat contract for JimmyG.

Actual result was pretty much right in the middle of those two. #fingeronthepulse

Nope. Not for anything. Brian Hoyer 2.0