Sammy Watkins classes it up on his way out of LA

[wppete]

3 hours ago, 3rdand12 said:

and i think that was Buffalo's issue with giving him the option. let us not forget this was a business decision. He was a high risk to fulfill his next contract if with the Bills.

Smart move.

Robert W. was going to get paid as well. Business decision. I bet they honestly liked his work ethic and passion. who plays a whole season at WR with a groin !!

 business decisions are no reason to talk poorly about why Sammy was not kept.
Wish both those guys well !

 

https://www.google.ca/amp/s/billswire.usatoday.com/2017/12/01/rams-sammy-watkins-cant-stop-talking-selfish-he-was-bills/amp/

[Bing Bong]

11 minutes ago, Commonsense said:

I watched the Rams as well, the previous poster said people would complain about checking down. No one in their right mind complains about that kind of efficiency. Yes, McVay is a wizard. 

We would lol. Because we did! Yeah McVay is great. Gurley is MVP caliber. So imagine.. purely hypothetical.. imagine a team with Goff, Gurley, and all those receivers gone. Just gone. Fill them in with some practice squad guys in your head. What happens? McVay and Goff target Gurley as much as possible. Their best talent right.

 

That's not hard to imagine that's what we did last year with the Bills, targeted our best player Shady.. and we complained.

 

Only difference is McVay is absolutely pissed that year being so limited he goes out and signs or trades for the best possible receivers for Goff and they have a better year offensively.

 

Not a defense of Dennison or Tyrod. But anybody that remotely knows football sees that team on paper knows the best option is also the only option. Those guys didn't execute as well but would have done the exact same thing McVay and Goff did.. Gurley would be every defenses only focus, they don't need to even be honest about covering the wideouts, now Gurley is forced to getting the ball on shorter and shorter passes to get the ball before the defense gets to him. Let's call that a checkdown. and we complained about the checkdowns to Shady.

 

When your hand is forced like that, all facets of the offense change. Put Goff McVay and Gurley on last years Bills team. Queue the complaining.

[Bing Bong]

 

That's what I meant by complaining. I'll go to bat on this crusade. I just want folks about the personnel personnel and simply think about why the offense ran like it did. Take the worst QB and worst OC and they do that. Take the best QB and best OC and they do that same game plan. Yeah they execute better. But the personnel defines what you do.. McVay calls check downs if he's OC for last year's Bills.

[Kelly the Dog]

46 minutes ago, Commonsense said:

I watched the Rams as well, the previous poster said people would complain about checking down. No one in their right mind complains about that kind of efficiency. Yes, McVay is a wizard. 

That is wholly true.

[Doc]

3 hours ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

Great take. I blame Sammy. Not EJ, not Orton, not Tyrod, not Goff (who was worse than EJ as rookie).  

 

I trust bitter Bills fans’ opinions over McVay and Andy Reid.  Our offense easily replaced Sammy and was a lot of fun to watch last year.  I expect it to be even more exciting this year.  

 

I found making the playoffs, without Sammy mind you, incredibly exciting.

[Bing Bong]

47 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

I watched every game. The vast majority of the passes he caught were swing passes or dump offs, and then he either had a huge lane and/or he made great runs and broke tackles or made guys miss. It's not like they were sending him out on 15-20 yard patterns very often or even targeted him that much. McVay ran an incredible offense.

What are your thoughts KTD? ^ . Those swing passes and dump offs are a lot harder when the defense knows they need 2 or 3 capable CB's to cover some crap WRs and linebackers and safeties are flying at Gurley on passing plays. Gurley's not seeing huge lanes. Heck he doesn't even have a Robert Woods stud blocker decking guys in front of him. His receivers are useless. And he's getting the ball closer to the Quarterback to get a flying chance to have a time to make a play. Hence some here complain, "stop checking it down, let's air it out to Deonte Thompson!" Queue the pass breakups and ints cause he rarely gets separation. Armchair OCs: Deonte Thompson isn't your game plan. Shady is. McVay would be well aware of that.

 

Of course it's a moot point because he values receivers. Funny concept to some. But McVay the genius made damn sure he got his WRs. The powers that be in Buffalo thought "nah, Philly brown, Andre Holmes, and Deonte are fine. Let's roll out this juggernaut" ?

10 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

That is wholly true.

KTD.. we did complain! 2 offenses. Personnel wise the difference is the RECEIVERS!

[CommonCents]

3 minutes ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said:

What are your thoughts KTD? ^ . Those swing passes and dump offs are a lot harder when the defense knows they need 2 or 3 capable CB's to cover some crap WRs and linebackers and safeties are flying at Gurley on passing plays. Gurley's not seeing huge lanes. Heck he doesn't even have a Robert Woods stud blocker decking guys in front of him. His receivers are useless. And he's getting the ball closer to the Quarterback to get a flying chance to have a time to make a play. Hence some here complain, "stop checking it down, let's air it out to Deonte Thompson!" Queue the pass breakups and ints cause he rarely gets separation. Armchair OCs: Deonte Thompson isn't your game plan. Shady is. McVay would be well aware of that.

 

Of course it's a moot point because he values receivers. Funny concept to some. But McVay the genius made damn sure he got his WRs. The powers that be in Buffalo thought "nah, Philly brown, Andre Holmes, and Deonte are fine. Let's roll out this juggernaut" ?

I don’t think anyone at OBD is content with a subpar WR group. They traded up for Zay last year, hoping he would have an impact. Then they went out and traded for KB. This year they signed a slot WR in Kerley and brought in a few additional guys to compete. 

 

They have been aggressive with the position, no results yet. Let’s see how they are heading into the 3rd preseason game.

[Bing Bong]

14 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

Put McVay in a crap situation like that and he gets him some WRs to run his genius offense. Genius move. Matter of fact he keeps Watkins.. on a rookie QB (doesn't need to trade mind you, keeps his picks, obviously fine with a rental there so clearly keeps Watkins for the year.. so obviously had no qualms at losing Watkins for nothing) and resigns Woods. HE SIGNED THEM to the Rams. That's the "genius" we're not considering.

7 minutes ago, Commonsense said:

I don’t think anyone at OBD is content with a subpar WR group. They traded up for Zay last year, hoping he would have an impact. Then they went out and traded for KB. This year they signed a slot WR in Kerley and brought in a few additional guys to compete. 

 

They have been aggressive with the position, no results yet. Let’s see how they are heading into the 3rd preseason game.

Yeah. It didn't pan out man that's what I'm getting across. McVay didn't want Zay, he wanted Watkins. How are we aggressive at WR when we drop the very WRs McVay wants. So.. he's a genius for being aggressive and getting it right! We were aggressive? Doesn't mean a hill of beans because we failed miserably while simultaneously giving McVay the receivers we had on our roster. If aggressive is dropping your top receivers, drafting a rookie and signing perennially out of shape  and consequently injury prone KB week 6 then cool.. sounds like we tried pretty freaking incompently.

[Kelly the Dog]

25 minutes ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said:

What are your thoughts KTD? ^ . Those swing passes and dump offs are a lot harder when the defense knows they need 2 or 3 capable CB's to cover some crap WRs and linebackers and safeties are flying at Gurley on passing plays. Gurley's not seeing huge lanes. Heck he doesn't even have a Robert Woods stud blocker decking guys in front of him. His receivers are useless. And he's getting the ball closer to the Quarterback to get a flying chance to have a time to make a play. Hence some here complain, "stop checking it down, let's air it out to Deonte Thompson!" Queue the pass breakups and ints cause he rarely gets separation. Armchair OCs: Deonte Thompson isn't your game plan. Shady is. McVay would be well aware of that.

 

Of course it's a moot point because he values receivers. Funny concept to some. But McVay the genius made damn sure he got his WRs. The powers that be in Buffalo thought "nah, Philly brown, Andre Holmes, and Deonte are fine. Let's roll out this juggernaut" ?

KTD.. we did complain! 2 offenses. Personnel wise the difference is the RECEIVERS!

We had the receivers and we got rid of them all.

[Gugny]

4 hours ago, C.Biscuit97 said:

We didn’t use him right.  Sammy was amazing in college at screens and slants. We Rarely threw those to him.  Stupid Miami feeds Landry, a guy a lot less physically talented than Sammy, the ball.  

 

 

 

Landry also catches over 70% of what's thrown to him.

 

But I guess Sam catches less because he's doubled.

 

He's just not that good.  Which is a shame, because he could be great.

[Bing Bong]

18 minutes ago, Commonsense said:

I don’t think anyone at OBD is content with a subpar WR group. They traded up for Zay last year, hoping he would have an impact. Then they went out and traded for KB. This year they signed a slot WR in Kerley and brought in a few additional guys to compete. 

 

They have been aggressive with the position, no results yet. Let’s see how they are heading into the 3rd preseason game.

All I said was that we complained about checkdowns. So if you agree "no one at OBD was content with our WR group." Why is the complaining over checkdowns reasonable? That's what frustrated me with OBD's narrative last year. Can we agree on this? Please?

4 minutes ago, Kelly the Dog said:

We had the receivers and we got rid of them all.

So my point is, is it valid to complain about the checkdowns when we saw the very same receivers make the dumpoffs work for McVay?

5 minutes ago, Gugny said:

 

Landry also catches over 70% of what's thrown to him.

 

But I guess Sam catches less because he's doubled.

 

He's just not that good.  Which is a shame, because he could be great.

Sammy never got the same game plan Miami had with Jarvis! So "he's just not good".. is not an apt comparison. Dolphins grab Sammy and use him like Jarvis, guarantee he crushes Jarvis's numbers.

 

Crusade is over. You guys get my point?

[CommonCents]

2 minutes ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said:

All I said was that we complained about checkdowns. So if you agree "no one at OBD was content with our WR group." Why is the complaining over checkdowns reasonable? That's what frustrated me with OBD's narrative last year. Can we agree on this? Please?

They fired Dennison after one year, they benched Taylor for Peterman. They made an in season trade for a #1 WR. OBD’s narrative was “not good enough”

 

Are you somehow saying Watkins would have changed things? Watkins was one and done in LA for a reason. Look at McVay’s comments about Cooks. Are you under the impression that they couldn’t have afforded Watkins? They made a handful of high profile moves, one which included a trade for another WR who is due a payday after 18’. If McVay thought Watkins was as good as half of TBD thinks, he would still be in LA.

 

Sammy is all about the money, we did this last off-season and now doing it again? Watkins will have a few nice plays and a bunch of weeks where he is non existent. He collects checks. I’m glad he is not in Buffalo, guys like that don’t matter in the NFL.

[Bing Bong]

9 minutes ago, Commonsense said:

They fired Dennison after one year, they benched Taylor for Peterman. They made an in season trade for a #1 WR. OBD’s narrative was “not good enough”

 

Are you somehow saying Watkins would have changed things? Watkins was one and done in LA for a reason. Look at McVay’s comments about Cooks. Are you under the impression that they couldn’t have afforded Watkins? They made a handful of high profile moves, one which included a trade for another WR who is due a payday after 18’. If McVay thought Watkins was as good as half of TBD thinks, he would still be in LA.

 

Sammy is all about the money, we did this last off-season and now doing it again? Watkins will have a few nice plays and a bunch of weeks where he is non existent. He collects checks. I’m glad he is not in Buffalo, guys like that don’t matter in the NFL.

McVay traded assets for a one year rental for Watkins. We could have kept him for a year under rookie contract as well. So how is McVay a genius for preparing an offensive personnel (with our top 2 receivers) that successfully set up Gurley for a monster season when we could have kept him without trading assets. And set Shady up in a similar situation. It's a double standard.

 

He's a genius no doubt. But give him Gurley without him grabbing our WRs and he's CHECKING DOWN. Our same criticism for Shady's checkdowns comments.

 

His "genius" is having a plan in place for Gurley personell wise. Our failure was not giving a **** about WRs. 

Edited June 21, 2018 by PetermanThrew5Picks

[John from Riverside]

42 minutes ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said:

Put McVay in a crap situation like that and he gets him some WRs to run his genius offense. Genius move. Matter of fact he keeps Watkins.. on a rookie QB (doesn't need to trade mind you, keeps his picks, obviously fine with a rental there so clearly keeps Watkins for the year.. so obviously had no qualms at losing Watkins for nothing) and resigns Woods. HE SIGNED THEM to the Rams. That's the "genius" we're not considering.

Yeah. It didn't pan out man that's what I'm getting across. McVay didn't want Zay, he wanted Watkins. How are we aggressive at WR when we drop the very WRs McVay wants. So.. he's a genius for being aggressive and getting it right! We were aggressive? Doesn't mean a hill of beans because we failed miserably while simultaneously giving McVay the receivers we had on our roster. If aggressive is dropping your top receivers, drafting a rookie and signing perennially out of shape  and consequently injury prone KB week 6 then cool.. sounds like we tried pretty freaking incompently.

To be fair with KB....he is in camp looking lean and in shape.

 

There was a reason why he was drafted high and stuck with the Panthers these past years....sometimes a change of scenery helps in this situation.

 

Im not gonna beat the drum too hard because of his injury history.....but if he DOES stay healthy...we might have something.

[Bing Bong]

 

TLDR we took shady without WRs, McVay took Gurley and added (our) receivers. Turns out that goes a long way

2 minutes ago, John from Riverside said:

To be fair with KB....he is in camp looking lean and in shape.

 

There was a reason why he was drafted high and stuck with the Panthers these past years....sometimes a change of scenery helps in this situation.

 

Im not gonna beat the drum too hard because of his injury history.....but if he DOES stay healthy...we might have something.

ALL I'm saying is complaints for checking down are silly. KB got hurt. Unlucky. Why are we griping about checking down. Unwarranted giving the situation.

[THEHARDTRUTH]

On 6/19/2018 at 8:11 PM, ScottLaw said:

Some fans need to convince themselves Sammy sucks and the Bills are better off without him. 

 

Meanwhile the Bills WR corps was atrocious without him and still looks to be an overall bad unit with 0 speed and ability to separate. 

Dont need any convincing cupcake. I know he sucks. Three teams in three years says it all.

[Bing Bong]

51 minutes ago, THEHARDTRUTH said:

Dont need any convincing cupcake. I know he sucks. Three teams in three years says it all.

As opposed to Deonte Thompson bouncing around practice squads until he breaks out with career high 600 yards. He doesn't suck. Clearly a rental for the Rams (for a rookie deal they couldn't afford to resign) Hot take man. Signed a lucrative deal after his rookie contract expired. So his market value has him sucking to the tune of 4th highest contract currently. Apparently the NFL market knows a bit more than your # of teams / year argument.. Christ i'm really having to explain this?

 

If 1000 yard seasons tell you he sucks then.. lower your bar for saying a WR sucks lmao.

 

And we don't need to name call you dope.

12 hours ago, ScottLaw said:

Nah I'm fine. Ive watched Sammy play. He's good. Your takes aren't.?

Owned. Feel free to pile on to this guy with me, fellow "cupcake"

[BigDingus]

I wish I could read the article. The stupid background add ends up covering up the entire text on the page when it fully loads.

But saying he wants to play with a QB he can grow with works. Granted, Goff is young too, and only on year 3, but Mahomes is known as more of a gunslinger, and Sammy probably is seeing an opportunity to be his go-to guy.

 

It's clear he wasn't Goff's, as pretty much everyone got targeted more than him. But with Mahomes, there's a legit chance he can work his way into being Mahomes' security blanket and auto 1st look. If he builds that trust & confidence with him, he can safely assume he'll get plenty of looks a game and maybe have a shot to prove he really can be a top guy.

[3rdand12]

1 hour ago, BigDingus said:

I wish I could read the article. The stupid background add ends up covering up the entire text on the page when it fully loads.

But saying he wants to play with a QB he can grow with works. Granted, Goff is young too, and only on year 3, but Mahomes is known as more of a gunslinger, and Sammy probably is seeing an opportunity to be his go-to guy.

 

It's clear he wasn't Goff's, as pretty much everyone got targeted more than him. But with Mahomes, there's a legit chance he can work his way into being Mahomes' security blanket and auto 1st look. If he builds that trust & confidence with him, he can safely assume he'll get plenty of looks a game and maybe have a shot to prove he really can be a top guy.

I had the same issue with the site, but i recall all of that info as i was following Watkins for awhile.

[Gugny]

7 hours ago, PetermanThrew5Picks said:

All I said was that we complained about checkdowns. So if you agree "no one at OBD was content with our WR group." Why is the complaining over checkdowns reasonable? That's what frustrated me with OBD's narrative last year. Can we agree on this? Please?

So my point is, is it valid to complain about the checkdowns when we saw the very same receivers make the dumpoffs work for McVay?

Sammy never got the same game plan Miami had with Jarvis! So "he's just not good".. is not an apt comparison. Dolphins grab Sammy and use him like Jarvis, guarantee he crushes Jarvis's numbers.

 

Crusade is over. You guys get my point?

 

Your point is actually making my point.  Sam is a bunch of ifs and buts.  

[GreggTX]

I'm not hating on Sammy, but he's a young man that has gotten an extraordinary amount of attention. He'll grow out of it, I hope. In the meantime, if he is licking his wounds from being turned away in Buffalo and LA. Maybe this is just what he needed. We all know what he's capable when healthy and fully motivated. He could be scary good if he gets his head screwed on straight and there's still plenty of time for him to make that happen.

[Fan in San Diego]

Sammy just needed to mature a little bit. Too bad he got ran out of town.

[Straight Hucklebuck]

On 6/20/2018 at 8:41 AM, formerlyofCtown said:

Julio Jones says hello.

Julio Jones is a bigger, faster, better athlete. 

 

Why do you and other Bills fans do this? You post stuff like Tom Brady says hello, Antonio Brown says hello, like it means something to the here and now. 

 

They have nothing to do with the Bills. 4 years in, on his 3rd team, I think it’s fair to call Sammy Watkins an underachiever/disappointment. 

 

 

Edited June 23, 2018 by Straight Hucklebuck

[YoloinOhio]

8 hours ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

Julio Jones is a bigger, faster, better athlete. 

 

Why do you and other Bills fans do this? You post stuff like Tom Brady says hello, Antonio Brown says hello, like it means something to the here and now. 

 

They have nothing to do with the Bills. 4 years in, on his 3rd team, I think it’s fair to call Sammy Watkins an underachiever/disappointment. 

 

 

The “says hello” thing is pretty obnoxious, I agree. Because it’s usually pointing to some outlier and means nothing. I didn’t follow this thread enough to go back and see what this one was referencing, but the 6th rd pick “Tom Brady says hello” is the worst followed closely by the QB who sits on the bench for years and then becomes a HOF “Aaron Rogers says hello” ?

Edited June 23, 2018 by YoloinOhio

[formerlyofCtown]

10 hours ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

Julio Jones is a bigger, faster, better athlete. 

 

Why do you and other Bills fans do this? You post stuff like Tom Brady says hello, Antonio Brown says hello, like it means something to the here and now. 

 

They have nothing to do with the Bills. 4 years in, on his 3rd team, I think it’s fair to call Sammy Watkins an underachiever/disappointment. 

 

 

If you read the last line of the post I responded to, you will see what I meant.  They said these injuries don't seem to get better.

[formerlyofCtown]

1 hour ago, YoloinOhio said:

The “says hello” thing is pretty obnoxious, I agree. Because it’s usually pointing to some outlier and means nothing. I didn’t follow this thread enough to go back and see what this one was referencing, but the 6th rd pick “Tom Brady says hello” is the worst followed closely by the QB who sits on the bench for years and then becomes a HOF “Aaron Rogers says hello” ?

It's usually a response used when someone inaccurately uses the word never or infers that some thing doesn't happen.  I guess it is a little obnoxious though.

Edited June 23, 2018 by formerlyofCtown

[Boatdrinks]

15 hours ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

 

 

They have nothing to do with the Bills. 4 years in, on his 3rd team, I think it’s fair to call Sammy Watkins an underachiever/disappointment. 

 On the surface one might assume that, but they would be wrong. SW could have stayed with the Rams if he wanted to. Multiple teams were competing for his services with a fairly open checkbook. That doesn’t happen for players who are though of as disappointments to actual NFL coaches, personnel people etc. The Bills trade of Watkins is still a questionable one. He may not yet have achieved the status of a great player, but he’s still very good and I’d love to have him on the Bills roster right now. 

15 hours ago, Straight Hucklebuck said:

 

 

[/dev/null]

5 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

The Bills trade of Watkins is still a questionable one. He may not yet have achieved the status of a great player, but he’s still very good and I’d love to have him on the Bills roster right now.

Watkins is a great raw talent.  If he could take his head out of his ass he would be a dominant WR.  But until that happens he is at best a #3 WR

[KD in CA]

5 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

 On the surface one might assume that, but they would be wrong. SW could have stayed with the Rams if he wanted to. Multiple teams were competing for his services with a fairly open checkbook. That doesn’t happen for players who are though of as disappointments to actual NFL coaches, personnel people etc. The Bills trade of Watkins is still a questionable one. He may not yet have achieved the status of a great player, but he’s still very good and I’d love to have him on the Bills roster right now. 

 

 

LOL.  They got a 2nd round pick -- not a mention a better player -- for the one year he had left on his contract.

[Boatdrinks]

16 hours ago, KD in CA said:

 

LOL.  They got a 2nd round pick -- not a mention a better player -- for the one year he had left on his contract.

They got a second round pick and a player who is no longer on the roster.They had the ability to retain Watkins for at least two seasons and didn’t execute it.  Who is this better player that the Bills received for Watkins? This team is now devoid of WR talent ( and must devote future resources to finding one- that may negate any “ profit” from trading him)  so currently  the trade remains a questionable one. Draft moves and their future  possibilities aside, the fact is the jury is out until there is more concrete information. Your dim view of Watkins doesn’t match up with those of NFL teams, yet it is coloring your view of the trade and it’s merits/ detractions from the Bills current roster.

[OldTimeAFLGuy]

17 hours ago, /dev/null said:

Watkins is a great raw talent.  If he could take his head out of his ass he would be a dominant WR.  But until that happens he is at best a #3 WR

 

....think the raw talent is worthy of that type of gamble?..............hmmmmm......

 

3/13/2018: Signed a three-year, $48 million contract. The deal includes $30 million guaranteed.

[Doc]

18 hours ago, Boatdrinks said:

They got a second round pick and a player who is no longer on the roster.They had the ability to retain Watkins for at least two seasons and didn’t execute it.  Who is this better player that the Bills received for Watkins? This team is now devoid of WR talent ( and must devote future resources to finding one- that may negate any “ profit” from trading him)  so currently  the trade remains a questionable one. Draft moves and their future  possibilities aside, the fact is the jury is out until there is more concrete information. Your dim view of Watkins doesn’t match up with those of NFL teams, yet it is coloring your view of the trade and it’s merits/ detractions from the Bills current roster.

 

The fact that the Bills made the playoffs without him, saved $13M by doing so, got a 2nd rounder for him, and he put up less than 40/yards a game with the Rams suggests the Bills made out better in the deal.  They were never going to re-sign him for $16M/year like the Chefs foolishly did so he would have been lost for at-best an end-of-3rd-round comp pick.

Edited June 25, 2018 by Doc

[John from Riverside]

The bottom line is.....with Sammy Watkins talent he should be better then he is......

[Jauronimo]

On ‎6‎/‎23‎/‎2018 at 8:59 PM, KD in CA said:

 

LOL.  They got a 2nd round pick -- not a mention a better player -- for the one year he had left on his contract.

EJ Gaines is better?  We only got him for a year too.

[KD in CA]

47 minutes ago, Jauronimo said:

EJ Gaines is better?  We only got him for a year too.

 

He played better last year than Watkins did and both players were in the last year of their contract.

 

Once they decided they were never going to break the bank for Watkins, it was a smart move to get as much as possible for him.

[Jauronimo]

30 minutes ago, KD in CA said:

 

He played better last year than Watkins did and both players were in the last year of their contract.

 

Once they decided they were never going to break the bank for Watkins, it was a smart move to get as much as possible for him.

It was the only move AFTER they elected to decline his 5th year option.  They could have locked Sammy up for 2 more years or alternatively, picked up the option then deal him with some time remaining on his contract which would command a higher return. 

 

EJ Gaines is no where near the player Sammy is and Jordan Matthews was never a replacement.

Edited June 25, 2018 by Jauronimo

[FrankoElTanko]

On 6/24/2018 at 11:27 AM, Boatdrinks said:

They got a second round pick and a player who is no longer on the roster.They had the ability to retain Watkins for at least two seasons and didn’t execute it.  Who is this better player that the Bills received for Watkins? This team is now devoid of WR talent ( and must devote future resources to finding one- that may negate any “ profit” from trading him)  so currently  the trade remains a questionable one. Draft moves and their future  possibilities aside, the fact is the jury is out until there is more concrete information. Your dim view of Watkins doesn’t match up with those of NFL teams, yet it is coloring your view of the trade and it’s merits/ detractions from the Bills current roster.

This is all true however...

 

We also used that second from him to capitalize on pulling the trigger to draft (what should be both of) our new offensive and defensive captains and EJ played a huge part in getting us to the playoffs... I believe Beane makes that trade solely BECUASE everyone else had such a high view of him (his value was high).  He  KNEW that in order to gamble on keeping Sammy (with the hope that last year or this year upcoming year would validate his draft pedigree) he would be doing so at the risk of one or both of those coming as lost seasons knowing last year was our final with Tyrod and we would not even have what his view of a franchise QB until this year (Allen) and he may not even play! This is all in what would have been Sammy's contract year... 

 

With that being said, It would have been silly to gamble on everything turning out (as predicted) with Sammy because in doing so we would not be obtaining the pick(s)/player we used for Allen AND Edmunds and we would be doing so at the risk of making a very historically unhealthy Sammy Watkins the face of our franchise at what would have likely been AT LEAST $13million/yr plus (see $15million/r in KC) on a long term deal. I am no NFL GM but that seems like the opposite angle a FO takes when attempting to rebuild the team. 

[Doc]

1 hour ago, ScottLaw said:

Gaines was a solid player for the whole 12 or so snaps he would get a game before getting hurt..... the guys made of glass. I can only imagine the reaction Watkins would get from fans here if he was doing that. 

 

Gaines is no where near the player Sammy Watkins is, IMO. I'm interested to see the Rams offense without Watkins this year. 

 

Gaines didn't cost multiple 1st rounders to get and more than $1.8M for the season.  And the Bills made the playoffs with him whereas they don't with Sammy making over $13M for the season.

[John from Riverside]

1 hour ago, Jauronimo said:

It was the only move AFTER they elected to decline his 5th year option.  They could have locked Sammy up for 2 more years or alternatively, picked up the option then deal him with some time remaining on his contract which would command a higher return. 

 

EJ Gaines is no where near the player Sammy is and Jordan Matthews was never a replacement.

We got more out of EJ Gaines then we did out of Sammy Watkins

[Jauronimo]

10 minutes ago, Doc said:

 

Gaines didn't cost multiple 1st rounders to get and more than $1.8M for the season.  And the Bills made the playoffs with him whereas they don't with Sammy making over $13M for the season.

Based on the commutative properties of draft picks, Gaines cost multiple first rounders AND a second round pick to acquire and then he was hurt all year.

1 minute ago, John from Riverside said:

We got more out of EJ Gaines then we did out of Sammy Watkins

11 games and 48 tackles?