Wide Receiver Train Full Speed Ahead- CHOO CHOO!

[FireChans]

6 minutes ago, Returntoglory said:

We've discussed Ad nauseam the lack of wide receiver talent surrounding Josh. The Brandon Beane drafts since becoming GM have been heavily focused on defense in the 1st round, save Dalton Kincaid, Tight End, in 2023. 

 

It's always baffled me that he has not complimented Josh with a WR1 via the draft. Aside from Ed Oliver, his 1st round picks have either been underwhelming( I'm being nice) or have been traded.

 

If you believe in your QB, you surround him with receiving talent, right? 

 

This brings me to Justin Jefferson. 

 

Now i know at the time many of us liked the trade with Minnesota for Diggs in 2020.

 

Sadly, Diggs, like he had done in Minny, wore out his welcome. OBD was warned and " Buyer beware" but BB moved forward, THUS, bypassing the opportunity to draft who many consider on of the top Wide receivers in the NFL. 

 

Justin Jefferson's yearly statistics show consistent excellence, starting with a historic rookie season and maintaining elite production across his first five NFL seasons. While his yardage and reception totals have varied, he has an exceptional average of over 97 receiving yards per game for his career, which places him among the league's top receivers even when compared to Hall of Fame players. His consistency has resulted in multiple Pro Bowl selections, an Offensive Player of the Year award, and consistently high per-game averages year after year. 

 

I feel making this ill advised trade was an epic franchise altering mistake, given the current state of our WR1 situation.  

 

How many times do we hear " Well, the Bills really have NO WR1"on nationally broadcasted games?

 

And every team we play knows this and adjusts accordingly.

 

At the time of this posting, NONE of our receivers are in the top 50 statistically. 

 

Our tight end Kincaid is #57.

 

Chew on this for a minute. 

 

 

We didn’t need Justin Jefferson in 2020 to have a WR1 in 2025.

 

JJ was like the fifth WR off the board. No one could have known that he was going to be arguably the greatest WR ever.

 

We traded for a known commodity in the league to help propel Josh to superstardom and it worked swimmingly. I have zero complaints on that aspect.

 

The problem is that Beane has a vendetta against all great WRs because Diggs left on acrimonious terms. That’s it. He’s had plenty of chances to find the next WR1 and refused to do so.

Edited 4 hours ago by FireChans

[17islongenough]

Diggs is what they needed at the time.  Who knows if Allen would have developed with a rookie WR. 

[Buffalo03]

6 minutes ago, Returntoglory said:

We've discussed Ad nauseam the lack of wide receiver talent surrounding Josh. The Brandon Beane drafts since becoming GM have been heavily focused on defense in the 1st round, save Dalton Kincaid, Tight End, in 2023. 

 

It's always baffled me that he has not complimented Josh with a WR1 via the draft. Aside from Ed Oliver, his 1st round picks have either been underwhelming( I'm being nice) or have been traded.

 

If you believe in your QB, you surround him with receiving talent, right? 

 

This brings me to Justin Jefferson. 

 

Now i know at the time many of us liked the trade with Minnesota for Diggs in 2020.

 

Sadly, Diggs, like he had done in Minny, wore out his welcome. OBD was warned and " Buyer beware" but BB moved forward, THUS, bypassing the opportunity to draft who many consider on of the top Wide receivers in the NFL. 

 

Justin Jefferson's yearly statistics show consistent excellence, starting with a historic rookie season and maintaining elite production across his first five NFL seasons. While his yardage and reception totals have varied, he has an exceptional average of over 97 receiving yards per game for his career, which places him among the league's top receivers even when compared to Hall of Fame players. His consistency has resulted in multiple Pro Bowl selections, an Offensive Player of the Year award, and consistently high per-game averages year after year. 

 

I feel making this ill advised trade was an epic franchise altering mistake, given the current state of our WR1 situation.  

 

How many times do we hear " Well, the Bills really have NO WR1"on nationally broadcasted games?

 

And every team we play knows this and adjusts accordingly.

 

At the time of this posting, NONE of our receivers are in the top 50 statistically. 

 

Our tight end Kincaid is #57.

 

Chew on this for a minute. 

 

 

I chewed. Now what?

[MiltonWaddams]

I want a crystal ball. I would be a great ***** GM if I had one.

[Returntoglory]

15 minutes ago, Buffalo03 said:

I chewed. Now what?

Swallow. You do swallow, right ? 😉

[TBBills Fan]

I'm on the trade for Chris Olave train

[Returntoglory]

17 minutes ago, MiltonWaddams said:

I want a crystal ball. I would be a great ***** GM if I had one.

Yeah. 

 

I guess a crystal ball would have been beneficial with Edmunds, Rousseau and Elam. And No 1st round pick in 2020(Diggs trade) which coukd have need Jefferson. 

 

9 minutes ago, TBBills Fan said:

I'm on the trade for Chris Olave train

This would definitely be an upgrade but not a dominant WR1.

[Warriorspikes51]

9 minutes ago, TBBills Fan said:

I'm on the trade for Chris Olave train

Same...and very unlikely he'll be moved / we'll be the team he's moved to 

[TBBills Fan]

2 minutes ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

Same...and very unlikely he'll be moved / we'll be the team he's moved to 

i have hope. But yeah unlikely 

[Warriorspikes51]

1 minute ago, TBBills Fan said:

i have hope. But yeah unlikely 

many would be against it but at this point I'd offer our 1st if they won't accept say a 2 + 4 

[TBBills Fan]

1 minute ago, Warriorspikes51 said:

many would be against it but at this point I'd offer our 1st if they won't accept say a 2 + 4 

Let's hope Beane has been going back forth and that part of it with Mickey Rooney. Let's hope Rooney is still dipping in the Saints medicine cabinet

[Alphadawg7]

4 hours ago, FireChans said:

We didn’t need Justin Jefferson in 2020 to have a WR1 in 2025.

 

JJ was like the fifth WR off the board. No one could have known that he was going to be arguably the greatest WR ever.

 

We traded for a known commodity in the league to help propel Josh to superstardom and it worked swimmingly. I have zero complaints on that aspect.

 

Agreed, people forget that JJ going into that draft played a lot in the slot and wasn't even thought of being a potential elite WR1, let alone one of the best of his era in what seems to be a career headed for GOAT consideration.  Most people on this board were demanding Bills find a way to trade up for Ruggs, Jeudy, or Lamb rather than "settle" for Higgins or JJ.  

 

Diggs was a great trade for us, where we got the sure thing vs the gamble on a rookie at a time our young QB needed someone to take his game to the next level. 

 

4 hours ago, FireChans said:

 

The problem is that Beane has a vendetta against all great WRs because Diggs left on acrimonious terms. That’s it. He’s had plenty of chances to find the next WR1 and refused to do so.

 

This is where I think Beane gets a bit of a bad rap in terms of saying he has a vendetta against it or refuses to invest in WR.  A lot of this has to do with circumstances.

1. Bills had a top 5 WR, there were bigger needs during Diggs best seasons here than investing in another WR early in the draft with Diggs in his prime.
2. In 2022, we extended Diggs and had an ascending Davis (coming off his 4 TD KC game), but they needed a future Slot guy and the signed Crowder and drafted Shakir (who has been a big hit for them out of the 5th round).  
3. In 2023, Diggs was on his first year of his extension and Davis left some real question marks about his long term future as a WR2.  They start looking for a Davis replacement in that draft, and they tried to trade up more than once and got rebuffed which led to a 4 pick WR run in front of us.  They went with the best pass catching weapon on their board still in Kincaid.
   1. Bills settled for a pass catching weapon at TE instead, he was not the original plan, especially since they had just paid Knox all that money.
   2. The also invested not only our 1st, but also our 4th in Kincaid, making drafting another WR in rounds 2 or 3 pretty unlikely.  We did still take a flyer on Shorter in the 5th, and also took O'Cyrus in the 2nd (another investment into Josh Allen through protection).  In fact, all but 2 picks were used on offense in this draft and it resulted in 2 key starters.
4. 2024 - the Diggs relationship with the team deteriorated to the point that not only were they not going to pay Davis to stay, they had no choice but to eat $31M in dead cap for an "addition by substraction" move with Diggs.  This resulted in the team unexpectedly needing to replace both WR1 and WR2 in the same offseason and in a draft where they were already missing a 3rd round pick, and had a lot of turnover on the defense too with cap cuts aging guys out.  
   1. No one was willing to trade back with us for a shot at any of the top 3. 
   2. Beane and most everyone seem to think it was a mini retool year with all the turnover we had and Beane entered the draft more focused on acquiring more draft capital than trading up.
      1. This led to what I feel is the only real mistake Beane made, and that was not trying to move up for BTJ.  Up to this point, he tried to get Addison and got rebuffed and settled on Kincaid.  So can't draft who isn't available, not really on Beane for that.  But, BTJ got within striking distance, and who knows if he would have even found a trade partner or not, but his mistake to me was not trying to get BTJ who was clearly what this team needed the most.  

Leading into 2024 - There was not really a reasonable opportunity for us to have done much different along the way where we clearly missed on something.  The not trying to get BTJ is really only it, and even if he tried we don't even know for sure we could have even successfully got him as it takes 2 to trade.  

 

Now in 2024, Bills come into the season fielding a less than ideal WR group due to cap issues, turnover, and lack of options during the period we were facing rebuilding the room.  But, Brady and Allen go on to orchestrate an offense that saw Cook emerge, saw us lead the AFC in PPG both in reg season and playoffs, led the entire NFL in total points scored in reg season and postseason combined, saw Allen win MVP, saw us never lose the turnover battle, saw us get on the door step of the Super Bowl where we lost by 3 to a team who did not score 30 in any other game except against us with 32.  And quite frankly refs also screwed us.

 

So now Beane (not saying he should have, just saying what happened) is seeing that success and comes into the 2025 season feeling like the Defense needs by far the most attention (and it did) and we just need to add some more pieces to the offense around our young guys.  They saw Keon working hard in the offseason and giving them reason for optimism (he was on a 1000 yard pace in his last 5 games before he got hurt last year as a rookie as he seemed like he was coming on) and went and got Palmer to help beat some man and added another speed guy in Moore.  

 

I am not saying that was the right mindset, but its hard to fault a GM who saw this work to such a high level the year before and think bringing Cook back, adding some better guys around the core, etc would see the offense continue to be elite or even better.  And our top 2 picks have been hurt, so hard to even know yet if the defensive picks were mistakes yet. 

 

We need help at WR on the outside, not denying it.  Where I don't agree with a lot of the hate Beane gets on this is that he is either incapable of drafting WR's or just refuses.  Allen had a top 5 WR up until last year, and the top 5 WR was signed to be here even still today.  During this span, the only real "miss" was not trying to trade for BTJ even though we don't even know if he could have.  Some people bring up DK, but I think DK is grossly over paid and if he had traded for DK it would cost us players through cap impact and we would have not resigned Cook either nor drafted TJ Sanders (who is still an intriguing prospect despite injury and slow start).  

 

So its easy to say we should have done more at WR - but there was not a lot "more" out there for us to grab the past 3 seasons in terms of early round picks where they did use the first pick in the draft twice on a pass catcher.  And the one season they didn't (this draft) we were coming off a season where we scored the most points in the NFL and Josh won the MVP.  

Edited 20 minutes ago by Alphadawg7

[nosejob]

48 pages....and I don't know if it's been said but the no.1 way to improve or WR core right now is to......THROW TO THE DAM RUNNING BACKS!  Sheesh

I don't get it....but I do see everyone else doing it.

 

Is it Josh or is it Brady?

[Warriorspikes51]

6 minutes ago, nosejob said:

48 pages....and I don't know if it's been said but the no.1 way to improve or WR core right now is to......THROW TO THE DAM RUNNING BACKS!  Sheesh

I don't get it....but I do see everyone else doing it.

 

Is it Josh or is it Brady?

probably both.  Cook has shown he can be a light version of Jamaal Charles when used on screens....look at the Ravens game against the blitz

 

where was that in ATL.  No idea! 

[finn]

20 minutes ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

Agreed, people forget that JJ going into that draft played a lot in the slot and wasn't even thought of being a potential elite WR1, let alone one of the best of his era in what seems to be a career headed for GOAT consideration.  Most people on this board were demanding Bills find a way to trade up for Ruggs, Jeudy, or Lamb rather than "settle" for Higgins or JJ.  

 

Diggs was a great trade for us, where we got the sure thing vs the gamble on a rookie at a time our young QB needed someone to take his game to the next level. 

 

 

This is where I think Beane gets a bit of a bad rap in terms of saying he has a vendetta against it or refuses to invest in WR.  A lot of this has to do with circumstances.

1. Bills had a top 5 WR, there were bigger needs during Diggs best seasons here than investing in another WR early in the draft with Diggs in his prime.
2. In 2022, we extended Diggs and had an ascending Davis (coming off his 4 TD KC game), but they needed a future Slot guy and the signed Crowder and drafted Shakir (who has been a big hit for them out of the 5th round).  
3. In 2023, Diggs was on his first year of his extension and Davis left some real question marks about his long term future as a WR2.  They start looking for a Davis replacement in that draft, and they tried to trade up more than once and got rebuffed which led to a 4 pick WR run in front of us.  They went with the best pass catching weapon on their board still in Kincaid.
   1. Bills settled for a pass catching weapon at TE instead, he was not the original plan, especially since they had just paid Knox all that money.
4. 2024 - the Diggs relationship with the team deteriorated to the point that not only were they not going to pay Davis to stay, they had no choice but to eat $31M in dead cap for an "addition by substraction" move with Diggs.  This resulted in the team unexpectedly needing to replace both WR1 and WR2 in the same offseason and in a draft where they were already missing a 3rd round pick, and had a lot of turnover on the defense too with cap cuts aging guys out.  
   1. No one was willing to trade back with us for a shot at any of the top 3. 
   2. Beane and most everyone seem to think it was a mini retool year with all the turnover we had and Beane entered the draft more focused on acquiring more draft capital than trading up.
      1. This led to what I feel is the only real mistake Beane made, and that was not trying to move up for BTJ.  Up to this point, he tried to get Addison and got rebuffed and settled on Kincaid.  So can't draft who isn't available, not really on Beane for that.  But, BTJ got within striking distance, and who knows if he would have even found a trade partner or not, but his mistake to me was not trying to get BTJ who was clearly what this team needed the most.  

Leading into 2024 - There was not really a reasonable opportunity for us to have done much different along the way where we clearly missed on something.  The not trying to get BTJ is really only it, and even if he tried we don't even know for sure we could have even successfully got him as it takes 2 to trade.  

 

Now in 2024, Bills come into the season fielding a less than ideal WR group due to cap issues, turnover, and lack of options during the period we were facing rebuilding the room.  But, Brady and Allen go on to orchestrate an offense that saw Cook emerge, saw us lead the AFC in PPG both in reg season and playoffs, led the entire NFL in total points scored in reg season and postseason combined, saw Allen win MVP, saw us never lose the turnover battle, saw us get on the door step of the Super Bowl where we lost by 3 to a team who did not score 30 in any other game except against us with 32.  And quite frankly refs also screwed us.

 

So now Beane (not saying he should have, just saying what happened) is seeing that success and comes into the 2025 season feeling like the Defense needs by far the most attention (and it did) and we just need to add some more pieces to the offense around our young guys.  They saw Keon working hard in the offseason and giving them reason for optimism (he was on a 1000 yard pace in his last 5 games before he got hurt last year as a rookie as he seemed like he was coming on) and went and got Palmer to help beat some man and added another speed guy in Moore.  

 

I am not saying that was the right mindset, but its hard to fault a GM who saw this work to such a high level the year before and think bringing Cook back, adding some better guys around the core, etc would see the offense continue to be elite or even better.  And our top 2 picks have been hurt, so hard to even know yet if the defensive picks were mistakes yet. 

 

We need help at WR on the outside, not denying it.  Where I don't agree with a lot of the hate Beane gets on this is that he is either incapable of drafting WR's or just refuses.  Allen had a top 5 WR up until last year, and the top 5 WR was signed to be here even still today.  During this span, the only real "miss" was not trying to trade for BTJ even though we don't even know if he could have.  Some people bring up DK, but I think DK is grossly over paid and if he had traded for DK it would cost us players through cap impact and we would have not resigned Cook either nor drafted TJ Sanders (who is still an intriguing prospect despite injury and slow start).  

 

So its easy to say we should have done more at WR - but there was not a lot "more" out there for us to grab the past 3 seasons in terms of early round picks where they did use the first pick in the draft twice on a pass catcher.  And the one season they didn't (this draft) we score the most points in the NFL and Josh won the MVP.  

Hey, no fair being reasonable, fair-minded, and accurate when we're all frustrated and mad! 

[Alphadawg7]

14 minutes ago, nosejob said:

48 pages....and I don't know if it's been said but the no.1 way to improve or WR core right now is to......THROW TO THE DAM RUNNING BACKS!  Sheesh

I don't get it....but I do see everyone else doing it.

 

Is it Josh or is it Brady?

 

The lack of including Cook in the passing game is mind boggling as is how they insist on using Keon.  

[Playoffs?]

It’s not that Beane is WR1 averse.. he just chooses poorly. Cooper, Palmer, Samuel, Keon, Moore… bringing back John Brown and Beasley.  Lots of whiffs. 

 

None of those guys are scary, or were scary when they were playing for us. After Diggs left, we’ve had NO ONE on our team that commands double coverage.  That’s a big problem. 

[Buffalo03]

1 hour ago, TBBills Fan said:

I'm on the trade for Chris Olave train

I did find it crazy that of all days, yesterday, while he has been the rumor of trade talk, he has one of his best games as a pro and catches 2 TDs. I was thinking "showcase" but I don't think it actually happens

[TBBills Fan]

1 minute ago, Buffalo03 said:

I did find it crazy that of all days, yesterday, while he has been the rumor of trade talk, he has one of his best games as a pro and catches 2 TDs. I was thinking "showcase" but I don't think it actually happens

I was thinking the same thing.really.hoping 

[FireChans]

2 hours ago, Alphadawg7 said:

 

This is where I think Beane gets a bit of a bad rap in terms of saying he has a vendetta against it or refuses to invest in WR.  A lot of this has to do with circumstances.

1. Bills had a top 5 WR, there were bigger needs during Diggs best seasons here than investing in another WR early in the draft with Diggs in his prime.
2. In 2022, we extended Diggs and had an ascending Davis (coming off his 4 TD KC game), but they needed a future Slot guy and the signed Crowder and drafted Shakir (who has been a big hit for them out of the 5th round).  
3. In 2023, Diggs was on his first year of his extension and Davis left some real question marks about his long term future as a WR2.  They start looking for a Davis replacement in that draft, and they tried to trade up more than once and got rebuffed which led to a 4 pick WR run in front of us.  They went with the best pass catching weapon on their board still in Kincaid.
   1. Bills settled for a pass catching weapon at TE instead, he was not the original plan, especially since they had just paid Knox all that money.
4. 2024 - the Diggs relationship with the team deteriorated to the point that not only were they not going to pay Davis to stay, they had no choice but to eat $31M in dead cap for an "addition by substraction" move with Diggs.  This resulted in the team unexpectedly needing to replace both WR1 and WR2 in the same offseason and in a draft where they were already missing a 3rd round pick, and had a lot of turnover on the defense too with cap cuts aging guys out.  
   1. No one was willing to trade back with us for a shot at any of the top 3. 
   2. Beane and most everyone seem to think it was a mini retool year with all the turnover we had and Beane entered the draft more focused on acquiring more draft capital than trading up.
      1. This led to what I feel is the only real mistake Beane made, and that was not trying to move up for BTJ.  Up to this point, he tried to get Addison and got rebuffed and settled on Kincaid.  So can't draft who isn't available, not really on Beane for that.  But, BTJ got within striking distance, and who knows if he would have even found a trade partner or not, but his mistake to me was not trying to get BTJ who was clearly what this team needed the most.  

Leading into 2024 - There was not really a reasonable opportunity for us to have done much different along the way where we clearly missed on something.  The not trying to get BTJ is really only it, and even if he tried we don't even know for sure we could have even successfully got him as it takes 2 to trade.  

 

Now in 2024, Bills come into the season fielding a less than ideal WR group due to cap issues, turnover, and lack of options during the period we were facing rebuilding the room.  But, Brady and Allen go on to orchestrate an offense that saw Cook emerge, saw us lead the AFC in PPG both in reg season and playoffs, led the entire NFL in total points scored in reg season and postseason combined, saw Allen win MVP, saw us never lose the turnover battle, saw us get on the door step of the Super Bowl where we lost by 3 to a team who did not score 30 in any other game except against us with 32.  And quite frankly refs also screwed us.

 

So now Beane (not saying he should have, just saying what happened) is seeing that success and comes into the 2025 season feeling like the Defense needs by far the most attention (and it did) and we just need to add some more pieces to the offense around our young guys.  They saw Keon working hard in the offseason and giving them reason for optimism (he was on a 1000 yard pace in his last 5 games before he got hurt last year as a rookie as he seemed like he was coming on) and went and got Palmer to help beat some man and added another speed guy in Moore.  

 

I am not saying that was the right mindset, but its hard to fault a GM who saw this work to such a high level the year before and think bringing Cook back, adding some better guys around the core, etc would see the offense continue to be elite or even better.  And our top 2 picks have been hurt, so hard to even know yet if the defensive picks were mistakes yet. 

 

We need help at WR on the outside, not denying it.  Where I don't agree with a lot of the hate Beane gets on this is that he is either incapable of drafting WR's or just refuses.  Allen had a top 5 WR up until last year, and the top 5 WR was signed to be here even still today.  During this span, the only real "miss" was not trying to trade for BTJ even though we don't even know if he could have.  Some people bring up DK, but I think DK is grossly over paid and if he had traded for DK it would cost us players through cap impact and we would have not resigned Cook either nor drafted TJ Sanders (who is still an intriguing prospect despite injury and slow start).  

 

So its easy to say we should have done more at WR - but there was not a lot "more" out there for us to grab the past 3 seasons in terms of early round picks where they did use the first pick in the draft twice on a pass catcher.  And the one season they didn't (this draft) we were coming off a season where we scored the most points in the NFL and Josh won the MVP.  

Agree with your first bit, not so much the second bit.

 

I'll break it down.

 

"In 2022, we extended Diggs and had an ascending Davis (coming off his 4 TD KC game), but they needed a future Slot guy and the signed Crowder and drafted Shakir (who has been a big hit for them out of the 5th round)."

 

100% true. The corollary to the ascending Davis + Diggs extension meant that the clock was ticking on losing Davis almost assuredly after his rookie deal. Which was only 2 seasons away. And Diggs was extended well before the draft. This left us EXTREMELY top heavy at WR. We had Digg+Davis with a 2 year window and basically nothing behind them. 

 

Now, DURING 2022, we famously, desperately, brought back Beasley and Brown midseason to give the WR room more juice. This is the most damning piece of evidence that WR needed to be addressed. Our own GM was dumpster diving with former Buffalo players well past their era. It would be like if we brought back Jordan Poyer/Tre White this year and then didn't address the safety and CB positions in the draft next year. Unconscionable, but exactly what happened prior. 

 

"In 2023, Diggs was on his first year of his extension and Davis left some real question marks about his long term future as a WR2.  They start looking for a Davis replacement in that draft, and they tried to trade up more than once and got rebuffed which led to a 4 pick WR run in front of us.  They went with the best pass catching weapon on their board still in Kincaid."

 

This is true, but there's other rounds besides round 1. Jayden Reed was a second rounder, Rashee Rice was a second rounder, Marvin Mims a second rounder, Tank Dell a third rounder, Josh Downs a third rounder, Tre Tucker a third rounder etc etc.

 

Again, they know they likely aren't backing up the Brinks truck for Gabe Davis at this point. Shakir has proven nothing thus far. They are completely top heavy, again, and they bring in two jokers that are somehow worse than the corpses of Beasley and Brown in Harty and Sherfield. The train is coming down the tracks. We are 1 offseason away from our backs against the wall in terms of needing to basically nail a starting WR pick.

 

Also minor point, but 2023 Diggs was not on the first year of his extension. He was extended with 2 seasons left. He didn't play a snap on his extension for the Buffalo Bills.

 

"2024 - the Diggs relationship with the team deteriorated to the point that not only were they not going to pay Davis to stay, they had no choice but to eat $31M in dead cap for an "addition by substraction" move with Diggs.  This resulted in the team unexpectedly needing to replace both WR1 and WR2 in the same offseason and in a draft where they were already missing a 3rd round pick, and had a lot of turnover on the defense too with cap cuts aging guys out.  "

 

So this was all pretty predictable. We knew guys would get old and need to be replaced, this happens for every team.  Sure, the Diggs disaster was probably not expected BUT Diggs or no Diggs we put ourselves in a scenario where we needed a boundary WR desperately in the first 2-3 rounds. And post-Diggs, we needed 2.  Brandon Beane, draft night, knows we need two starting WRs. We still only took one, and that after trading BACK for more picks to shore up the defense (and that pick was a disaster in Carter and Coleman ain't looking too hot right now.)

 

As for the rest of your post, I agree he saw Allen make lemonade and basically rolled the dice he could do it twice. But he was and is wrong. He can't have it both ways, although he often gets it. He got to play the "we couldn't bring anyone in because Diggs was unexpected and was a massive cap hit" card for one year, then the next season when the books clear and we still have a Diggs-shaped hole on the roster, he gets to say we can't afford to pay big time WR's. 

 

The fact of the matter is that massive WR salaries are new, but not that new. 2022 and on had massive money being thrown towards superstar pass catchers. Part of the GM job is being proactive instead of reactive when it comes to restocking an expensive position group. We should have had 1-2 more Shakir-types who may not have been major contributors in year 1 but waiting in the wings preparing for life after Davis. 

 

Combine that with him consistently building maybe the thinnest WR unit in the NFL after Sanders retired.  You say that WR wasn't a massive need early, but we had Diggs/Davis and basically nobody until 2023 when Shakir burst on the scene. What if Diggs or Davis got injured? We had nothing behind them.  Josh Palmer just got hurt and I think Tyrell Shavers is next man up to start and play 70% of the snaps?  With massive needs at WR the last 2 offseasons? That's criminal lol.  There's a reason teams roster 5-6 WR's. 

 

The fact of the matter is that the Bills have been very proactive for other groups except WR.  We have AJE/Bosa's, Ed Oliver's and Daquan Jones' and Matt Milano's potential replacements all on the roster already, they were all drafted before they needed to st art immediately. I do not agree that Beane was unable to apply that philosophy to WR over the last 4 seasons.

Edited 1 hour ago by FireChans