finn

Maybe also not choke them, either, eh?

Agree. Stop accommodating the geriatric Miller and let Groot rush from the right side, ideally opposite a quality player on the left side, and you'll see results. It really is time to cut Miller. He gave us half a season for $20 million, and is an expensive waste of a roster spot. Sign Josh Sweat or trade for Hendrickson, and draft a DE with one of the two second-round picks to join Javon Solomon. Together with a big, active DT and Oliver, that would be a real line.

Edmunds in Chicago, Gabe in Jacksonville, Diggs in Houston... the players we let go aren't showing too well. Maybe Beane does know what he's doing after all.

Sounds familiar.

And he did this playing either on his less favorable side or opposite Epenesa, one of the weaker starting ends in the league.

Not as young as Tremaine. Just saying.

I forgot about Trent Murphy. What an awful signing that was. Settle wasn't any better. But Beane hit on Floyd and Dequan. It's like throwing darts at a board.

I can see they're missing WRs, but one top OL? Who do you see as deficient? Seems the Bills need a DE, DT, CB, WR, and a safety to develop. OL isn't even on the list, unless you think they should cut Edwards? Every team's fan base wants their team to be just like that year's Super Bowl winner. But the Bills are better off sticking with what worked for them last year, at least on offense, particularly their balanced attack. Two major tweaks: Allen runs less and they get themselves a WR to stretch the field, say Hollywood Brown or Darius Slayton. Even if Kincaid, Samuels, and Coleman have another disappointing year, the offense will still be potent enough to go all the way--IF they don't have to carry McDermott's defense. What they need to do on defense is closer to the Eagles model: a pass rusher, two big tackles, a shut-down corner, and a top-shelf safety. That's a lot to ask, but it can be done. Sign Josh Sweat, draft the best available safety with your first-round pick, go DT with your two second-round picks, and trade your two fours to move up in the third for the best CB still available to develop behind Douglas, whom you sign to a one-year deal. Voila: a much better defense. Then somehow persuade McDermott to dump his bend-don't-break, play-not-to-lose defense, at least for the playoffs.

Yes to a second. That leaves a first and third for defensive line and the two fours and free agency for the depleted secondary, with enough cap room to be made for resigning practically everyone.

That's a point. Brady leaned on his running a lot last season, and that's just not sustainable.

I'm not saying the Bills should stay pat on offense, just that they don't need another monster on that side of the ball. A Hollywood Brown or Darius Slayton would fit the bill nicely. Yes, with Metcalf they may score even more than the 31 ppg they scored last year (second best in the league), but if signing him means no first-round pick and no big splash in free agency, they'd need to score 35 points a game to compensate for a sieve-like defense.

Even then you're saddled with a second huge contract on offense, limiting what you can do on defense. Allen is a monster on offense, lifting the entire platform all by himself like Atlas. He doesn't need another superstar to win games, as we saw last season. He just needs a defense that can do its part, or at least not go belly up every week. No, Beane needs to throw pretty much every last resource into defense to make up for his meh draft record and McDermott's meh coaching. With ten picks and plenty of cash, maybe he'll hit somewhere, like the proverbial blind man. Fun to dream about a Metcalf-type bombshell, but the result would be like one of those weight lifters with a huge upper body and stick legs.

I can't see those two names without thinking Beane could have picked both of them. Instead, he chose Boogie Basham and Rashad Wildgoose. Yeah, hindsight and all, but the man lacks imagination. He doesn't want to take an excellent center high because he has an aging Mitch Morse, and he can't take a flier in the sixth round on an excellent guard with injury questions. I've had faith in Beane for years, but the evidence is accumulating that the draft is his weak suit, at least the early rounds. He trades up when he should trade down, trades down when he should stay put, and stays put when he should trade up. You could field a pro-bowl team with the players he's passed up to take the likes of Tremaine Edmunds, Cody Ford, Boogie Basham, AJ Epenesa, Kaiir Elam, and Dalton Kincaid.

Thanks. I realize there's not much to choose from. Slayton seems the best of the bunch, sort of a deep-ball version of Shakir in his reliability and lack of star quality. In that sense, he'd fit right in. Brown might be the best of the bunch, but he's always injured. Plus, he's small, and McDermott evidently doesn't want a smurf. Brown... He did well in they playoffs, but there is good reason for the Commanders to let him go. Seems like you could get the same or better production out of a fourth-rounder. Do you agree with all that?

Who do you think would fit their plans? (Curious.)

Their valuations ticking up is one thing (led by a few headline anomalies like this one), their going way up is another. Very good running backs are too common and their shelf life is too short for the position to go the way of wide receivers. But I agree they'll be getting a significant bump.

Remind me: How well do combine visits with Bills correspond to drafting these players?

Right. And I suspect he was a headache precisely because he knew he was declining, at least at some level, and wasn't taking it well. Doesn't reflect very well on him, nor does how well Allen performed once he was relieved of him. Makes me wonder anew how it would have turned out if Beane had drafted Jefferson instead of trading for Diggs. That trade has been universally praised, including by this board, and stats support the acclaim. But in still more hindsight, it doesn't look as good. Diggs routinely disappeared in the playoffs when the team needed him most, and he ended up such a distraction that Beane was pretty much forced to pay him a huge salary just to leave. Of course, if Beane had kept the pick, given his track record he probably would have traded up for Jalen Reagor. 😒

Good question. Before you talk about spoiled players and fleeced blue-collar fans, check out the profits the owners are making. Terry either has or could afford dozens of these yachts, and thousands of first-class airline tickets. But why should he pony up for the players doing the actual work he's profiting from? It's the same old story: the guy owns the whatever (team, network, online behemoth), therefore it's fine for him to cash in, hoard, exploit, and squeeze as much as he can. Point out how morally corrupt this arrangement is, how illogical and ultimately self defeating, and the brainwashed mob, none of them wealthy, bleat, in unison, "Socialist!" as if they knew what that term means or it represented the only alternative to bottomless greed. So many sheep in this country, all happy to do the bidding of the billionaires stealing from them. Watch reactions to this post for prime examples. Let the bleating begin in three, two one...

That will be the epitaph on his gravestone.

When Beane trades up, watch out. He traded up for Edmunds in 2018, up for Cody Ford in 2020, up for Elam in 2021, and up for Kincaid in 2022. Not exactly an all-star lineup. Plus, who knows if he would have hit, if only by chance, on all those picks he surrendered to trade up. No GM hits on everything, and they all have picks that are howlers. But for whatever reason, Beane tends to do worse than his top peers in the early rounds and better in the later ones. Given this, maybe he should be looking to trade way down, like into the third and fourth rounds, when he may tend to rely on the judgment of his experts instead of his own and McDermott's.

A billionaire owner and he doesn't pay for his players to travel first class. Saving money for a third jet? And a coaching staff that treats themselves right while the grunts sit in coach. How do they think the players will react? Who do they think they are, royalty? I didn't respect McDermott as a coach much before, now I respect him even less now. No true leader is going to pull that crap.

Either let him play out his contract and audition for other teams, meanwhile drafting and developing his replacement in a RB-rich class, or trade him and use that pick to move up into the second round for a RB who is ready to start. Use that big salary Cook wants on the many, many needs elsewhere. Plus, negotiating via social media and his me-first attitude disgusts me. If I'm Beane I snuff that out by doing anything but give Cook what he wants.

Agree that the offense was not the problem last year, although that's not because the WR was good but because the other units made up for its deficiencies. Still, a Hollywood Brown or Darius Slayton would be lovely. But I don't agree with the conventional wisdom that the Bills are thisclose and just need a big-time player to get over the hump. The turnover differential saved the season, and that's not something you can count on year after year. The truth is the defense was really quite bad. No pass rush, poor safety play, mediocre linebackers, soft against both the run and pass. No areas of strength at all, except creating turnovers. Not putrid, but not a playoff defense either. Sorry to say, but pretty much all the Bills resources need to go into the defense. Douglas can give you one more year to buy time for a talented cornerback to develop, so that can be like a fourth-round pick, but Rapp and Bishop won't get you to the Super Bowl, and Rapp will be injured most of the year. Need a top veteran back there from free agency (= $). Need a quality linebacker to back up Bernard, who is also injury prone. Another fourth rounder. Need a powerful defensive tackle and a right defensive end with juice, maybe trading one of the second round picks to move up. The rest of the picks can go to depth, and if any money is left it can go to Slayton or Brown. It CAN be done. It has been done. But, frankly, it could go the other direction, too, if Beane misses yet again and injuries pile up. A big offseason for the Bills.

One person's fear is another person's hard-won lesson. Garrett is younger than Miller, but Miller didn't cost what Garrett would cost, which is likely more than the optimistic estimates going around. How about our first round this year and next, both seconds, our second next year, plus Epenesa, Elam, and Cook? Or the next three first-round picks? Keep in mind our draft picks are less valuable than any other team's except two. And how much of the cap will Garrett's salary consume, now and the next five years? Beane doesn't need one player; he needs five: defensive end, defensive tackle, corner, safety (Bishop and Rapp are both strong safeties and both shaky), and a WR1. And that's just starters; he also needs depth. He'll need every high-round pick, all the cap room he can free up, AND a lot of luck with lower-round picks to improve this team enough to take the next step. As I've said elsewhere, Beane has done better than some GMs, not as good as others. He's not Howie Roseman or Eric DeCosta, but is he so deficient at talent evaluation that he needs to say, "Screw it, I'm all in on one player I know is good." I say he has a better shot hitting the ball with five swings than one.