Can we take a moment and appreciate the front office

[ChasBB]

Agree with OP.  And credit to the Pegulas, too, for giving the front office the latitude to do what they think is best for the team w/o excessive meddling.  Bills are arguably just three plays away from being undefeated.  I don't recall a season where there wasn't at least one lopsided loss and that didn't happen this season.  The team is extremely competitive every week and that's a real credit to how the team has been managed and coached.  There will never be a state of "perfection".  It will always be a work-in-progress.  There will always be injuries, holes to fill, etc.  But the depth and overall talent on the roster is markedly improved from a couple of years ago and the team culture is where it needs to be to compete for a championship.  Have to like how the team is trending, overall, and think the future should remain bright - especially with Josh Allen on the roster for many years to come.

[WhoTom]

3 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

Back to good things about Beane...I would also add he is one of the best in the league, if not the best, in getting value in trades, retaining talent on balanced deals, managing the cap to keep they guys they want or acquiring ones via trade/FA.  

 

^ This.

 

Remember a few years ago when three key players (Milano, Feliciano, and Dawkins) were hitting free agency. We were here discussing which one we could keep, maybe two if Beane were a genius. All three signed team-friendly deals. And his trades range from "so-so" on the low end to "Wow, did he fleece those guys" on the high end.

 

 

[78thealltimegreat]

1 hour ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

I get your post here is rather positive about Beane...but there is one thing in it that gets said a lot and I think it needs to stop.  People need to let go of these "misses"...go look at every GM in the league, the "miss" list accompanies all of their resumes.  If you compare Beanes resume to any GM in the league since he took over as our GM, you will be hard pressed to find anyone with as good of a draft record as Beane, if any.  He completely rebuilt every single roster spot on this team in short order and turned it into one of the most talented teams in the NFL, mostly built through the draft.  

 

There has never been a GM in NFL history who didn't have misses.  Bill Walsh is consider the GOAT by many, yet he said JJ Stokes was the next Jerry Rice and Jim Drunkenmiller could be the next Montana.  

 

Back to good things about Beane...I would also add he is one of the best in the league, if not the best, in getting value in trades, retaining talent on balanced deals, managing the cap to keep they guys they want or acquiring ones via trade/FA.  

What I’m saying is he has a blind spot for the WR position. Even Beane knows he came up short evaluating it. Trying to sign Odell Beckham and having Josh throwing to guys like Brown and Beasley who didn’t have a team 5 weeks ago. 
Don’t be shocked if the Bills come up short if they aren’t talking to Arizona about Deandre Hopkins. 

[BigDingus]

23 minutes ago, 78thealltimegreat said:

What I’m saying is he has a blind spot for the WR position. Even Beane knows he came up short evaluating it. Trying to sign Odell Beckham and having Josh throwing to guys like Brown and Beasley who didn’t have a team 5 weeks ago. 
Don’t be shocked if the Bills come up short if they aren’t talking to Arizona about Deandre Hopkins. 

 

They also have a penchant for not quite nailing those 1st round defensive picks. The Beane era has overseen 5 x 1st round picks, and 4 of them were defensive players. Only Edmunds has even made a Pro Bowl, & 5 years later people on this board still can't decide if he sucks 🤣

 

Oliver was being compared to Aaron Donald, now we just settle for "solid" and "he's better than the other guys behind him." 

 

Rousseau is having a good year, but it's easy to see that a lot of those numbers were the result of playing opposite Von Miller. Still, he's the one guy I think has the biggest chance to actually breakout as a star.

 

Elam... Obviously there were other rookie CB's that played much better than him. Just wasn't expecting one of those would end up being our own 6th rounder which beat him out for a starting spot. It's great to say "look, I found starting-level talent in the 6th round!" but it's a bit awkward when you took "backup-level"/rotation talent in the 1st. I still have hope for Elam, but it's apparent to everyone the coaching staff sees things differently than fans do.

Edited January 10, 2023 by BigDingus

[Manther]

4 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

It's been debated ad nauseum but Whaley never got to pick a GM or a QB.  He made some fine trades and some nice other picks back in the day.  

Beane got the franchise QB with some very nice maneuvers and a bit of luck.  The real hard work begins when he must choose which players to extend and which to let walk.  

I agree with you on Whaley.  Except he was the GM.  He never picked a Coach or QB.  But, I agree with you.

 

I think Beane is much better.  But, Whaley could of been above average.  Whaley had skills and couldn't use his words well, but, still above average.

 

The Watkins trade up was bad, FAs, roster moves and drafts were all slightly above average and he was better in Pro Player evaluation.  I think Whaley was an above average GM that didn't have the tools he needed.

 

I think Whaley's correct seat on the bus was Assistant GM or Assistant to the GM.

[Baba Booey]

15 hours ago, Ed_Formerly_of_Roch said:

 

Why is it terrible when over a believe it's a 12 year period, every team plays almost every other team equal number of times home and away.  Granted the one thing that can't be controlled is the two games each year, one home and one away based on where you finished in the standings. 

 

You can rip the NFL office all you want, but one thing I'm certain of is they have had a whole room for of people analyzing all different concepts and this likely for a number of reasons most here have never thought of, this is the best idea.  If you spend 15 minutes thinking about it, yes may sound dumb, but if you spent 15 days looking at it, I'm sure there are many reason most never thought of.  Things like this, they do get right, it's more the human element they struggle with.

I understand that the NFL is a well oiled machine(lol) and has looked at all avenues of fairness in aspect to the schedule. The guy asked a question and the other poster, like many others on this board, jump down people’s throats when they don’t know the answer. Just like when another thread is started and a lot of people kill a guy because there some other thread, that has gone On and on for 100 pages, isn’t used.  That poster gets killed for starting a new thread. It’s ridiculous, some on here just want to be board police. 

[SoTier]

 

On 1/9/2023 at 8:13 PM, Joe Ferguson said:

I'll be appreciative when we win the Super Bowl.

 

Were you living under a rock between 2001 and 2016?

 

On 1/9/2023 at 8:18 PM, special-teams said:

I'm OK with 12-13 win seasons and getting a shot at the SB.    Much different than the past.

 

It sure beats the crap out of managing only 2 winning seasons between 2001 and 2016 while missing the playoffs for 16 straight seasons.

 

 

On 1/9/2023 at 9:09 PM, smuvtalker said:

Appreciate the post Virgil.  Count me among the grateful for all that we have.  As a Bills fan for over four decades, I have been through my share of heartache, misery, lather, rinse and repeat.  Of the Bills finding new ways to rip your heart out of your chest, snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.   

 

When the McDermott hire was made, it was more of a "meh", let's see what the guy can do.  When he brought Beane on board, I actually remember thinking to myself, "wait, why is the head coach selecting our GM? Isn't it supposed to be the other way around? Here we go with some already instant Billsy type moves.". And then, fast forward to Thursday evening, April 26th, 2018.  A night that would come to change my life, forever.  The Bills were drafting 12th that night, there were rumors that Beane/McDermott were seriously considering making the jump higher into the first to go after their franchise quarterback. After the sixth pick, it was announced that they had pulled the trigger, and made a trade with Tampa to pick seventh.  "This is it," I thought to myself.  We're going after Josh!  With Mayfield going one overall and Darnold going at three to the Jets, Josh was still there for the taking!!!  Then, I heard it.  "With the seventh pick in the NFL draft, the Buffalo Bills select Josh Allen, quarterback, Wyoming."   I threw the TV remote all the way across the room.  I vomited violently.  I tried to Patrick Swayze Roadhouse kick my flat screen off of the wall, unsuccessfully.  I was instantly suicidal.  The Bills did it to me again.  They picked the WRONG JOSH!  I was squarely in the Josh Rosen camp, and just knew we would finally get things right.  

Let me just say, that Josh Allen crow, never tasted so good.

I thank God every day that our team was entrusted to Sean McDermott and Brandon Beane, and if there was a better way to express my gratitude for everything they've done for this organization, I'm happy to do so.  The turnaround, the positive changes they have brought to our team, and ultimately our city, simply can't be overstated.  We are without a doubt an elite football team, and have become such a successful franchise, we actually have nitpicked and argued about the problems/flaws with a team that just finished the regular season 13-3, despite countless injuries, a mass shooting, a blizzard that killed 40 plus people, having to relocate to a different stadium due to weather, the witnessing of a teammate collapse and die on the field....yet failed to lose a game through any of those things.  And the three losses?  A COMBINED total of 8 points.  

 

If there's a better coach/GM combo out there....I don't want em.  I'm more than happy with what we've been blessed with.

 

I totally agree.  I'm happy to eat crow on Beane, McDermott, and especially Allen every single week of the season and into the playoffs.

 

15 hours ago, Ethan in Cleveland said:

It's been debated ad nauseum but Whaley never got to pick a GM or a QB.  He made some fine trades and some nice other picks back in the day.  

Beane got the franchise QB with some very nice maneuvers and a bit of luck.  The real hard work begins when he must choose which players to extend and which to let walk.  

 

Whaley was always under Russ Brandon's thumb, and was forced to work within Brandon's philosophy of maximizing profits at the expense of wins, which is why the Bills almost always chose to let their best young players walk in FA or chose to trade them away for a fraction of their worth rather than pay them. 

[Billsfan1972]

15 hours ago, BillsFanSD said:

It would be interesting to evaluate Beane against his peers around the league if you could remove the QB selection in 2018 from his resume.  Obviously that was by far his biggest call as a GM and he knocked that one way out of the part -- any GM would get an A grade just for that one pick alone considering how it altered this franchise's trajectory.  

 

Intuitively it feels like Beane has done an above-average job of managing the salary cap, bringing in appropriately-priced FAs, and working the draft.  It's just hard to judge since I don't pay much attention to the day-to-day workings of other GMs.

Exactly, without Allen, where is this team with an only "Average" QB and then what do we say about the Front Office & McD?  Let's look at NE now as the perfect example.  Wish Belichek got his wish deep sixed Brady for Jimmy G and see how much worse they would have been.

 

Another example is Baltimore this year and their play without Lamar.  What we see is the D is still very good, but the Offence was as bad as expected.  

[BillsFanSD]

14 hours ago, BigDingus said:

 

They also have a penchant for not quite nailing those 1st round defensive picks. The Beane era has overseen 5 x 1st round picks, and 4 of them were defensive players. Only Edmunds has even made a Pro Bowl, & 5 years later people on this board still can't decide if he sucks 🤣

 

Oliver was being compared to Aaron Donald, now we just settle for "solid" and "he's better than the other guys behind him." 

 

Rousseau is having a good year, but it's easy to see that a lot of those numbers were the result of playing opposite Von Miller. Still, he's the one guy I think has the biggest chance to actually breakout as a star.

 

Elam... Obviously there were other rookie CB's that played much better than him. Just wasn't expecting one of those would end up being our own 6th rounder which beat him out for a starting spot. It's great to say "look, I found starting-level talent in the 6th round!" but it's a bit awkward when you took "backup-level"/rotation talent in the 1st. I still have hope for Elam, but it's apparent to everyone the coaching staff sees things differently than fans do.

Also, Beane's record in the 2nd round is kind of cringey.  Drafting is hard, and there's a huge amount of randomness here.  We consider it a good class if you get one high-quality starter and a couple of contributors in any particular year.  Any GM is going to miss more than he hits.  It's fair to acknowledge that Beane has a lot of not-quite-hits in the first round and outright misses in the 2nd round.  

 

Then again, the guy does seem like a wizard when it comes to the cap and free agency.  

[Ethan in Cleveland]

17 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

I get your post here is rather positive about Beane...but there is one thing in it that gets said a lot and I think it needs to stop.  People need to let go of these "misses"...go look at every GM in the league, the "miss" list accompanies all of their resumes.  If you compare Beanes resume to any GM in the league since he took over as our GM, you will be hard pressed to find anyone with as good of a draft record as Beane, if any.  He completely rebuilt every single roster spot on this team in short order and turned it into one of the most talented teams in the NFL, mostly built through the draft.  

 

There has never been a GM in NFL history who didn't have misses.  Bill Walsh is consider the GOAT by many, yet he said JJ Stokes was the next Jerry Rice and Jim Drunkenmiller could be the next Montana.  

 

Back to good things about Beane...I would also add he is one of the best in the league, if not the best, in getting value in trades, retaining talent on balanced deals, managing the cap to keep they guys they want or acquiring ones via trade/FA.  

If people stop calling him a genius then we will stop talking about his misses. He's a solid GM but he has multiple failed high draft picks now. As you pointed out just like every other GM. 

13 hours ago, Manther said:

I agree with you on Whaley.  Except he was the GM.  He never picked a Coach or QB.  But, I agree with you.

 

I think Beane is much better.  But, Whaley could of been above average.  Whaley had skills and couldn't use his words well, but, still above average.

 

The Watkins trade up was bad, FAs, roster moves and drafts were all slightly above average and he was better in Pro Player evaluation.  I think Whaley was an above average GM that didn't have the tools he needed.

 

I think Whaley's correct seat on the bus was Assistant GM or Assistant to the GM.

I agree Beane is much better. Whaley as a ProPlayer evaluator is probably his sweet spot.