Roster Support over the past three years (Beane)

[LABILLBACKER]

12 hours ago, ngbills said:

Beane prefers all the many every body eats pieces.  We don’t need a Chase that completely takes over game. We would rather spend $20m+ on Moore, Samuel, Knox, etc. 

Not only do we spend all this cap money on lower to mid tier players, but then we have no clue how to incorporate them into our offense. So as far as money goes, everybody is eating.....they're just not producing.

Edited yesterday at 02:16 AM by LABILLBACKER

[ganesh]

16 hours ago, Bill from NYC said:

@Virgil, your post would seem to absolve McDermott of any responsibility. Do you think that McDermott sat there like a trained puppy and said "yes sir" to anything Beane wanted to do? McDermott was here before Beane and had control over the draft. You remember, the one in which he gave Mahomes to KC and drafted a cornerback.

 

Imo, there is absolutely NO WAY that McDermott does not have at least an equal say. In fact, if one had to go I would rather see McDermott gone than Beane. If nothing else, Beane was able to keep Josh in Buffalo. I don't even want to think about this Bills team without Josh. 

McDermott has influenced Beane to make all those defensive picks in the 1st three rounds and neglecting the offense.   The lack of offensive weapons is stunning and with the OL puking the last two games, it has really shown its true colors. 

 

[Governor]

29 minutes ago, ganesh said:

or the Mahomes trade or the Worthy Trade .... Sheesh...it is what it is!

so true in every aspect.

 

He has panicked on every 1st round or 2nd round picks.  He doesn't let the draft come to him.   

we pick too much for the need.

And the huge contracts doled out to Benford, Rosseau and Bernard are going to bite this team for a long time (like it has been with Milano)

He’s done so many weird things over the years. The hyper focusing on building a team to specifically beat the Chiefs, only to find out a few years later that the Chiefs no longer looked like the team you’ve been emulating and hoped to beat. That left us very vulnerable and we’re extremely fortunate that the Ravens didn’t knock us out. How about just be the best version of yourself.

[Bill from NYC]

7 hours ago, ganesh said:

McDermott has influenced Beane to make all those defensive picks in the 1st three rounds and neglecting the offense.   The lack of offensive weapons is stunning and with the OL puking the last two games, it has really shown its true colors. 

 

Great point about the OL. Dion Dawkins is excellent. He will also be 32 before next season. He is listed at 320 lbs. but he looks heavier to me. My point? The Bills should always be going after OL depth and talent in the draft, along with of course wide receivers. Why? Because Josh Allen is our quarterback. McDermott wants to build around cornerbacks and DTs. This has been his signature from day one. 

 

The season is not over. The Bills can come back. That said, the Atlanta game was as bad as I have seen them play in a very long time. Would McBeane trade a first round pick for Waddle (who is rumored to be available)?  I don't know. They might need that pick for another corner.

[Thurman#1]

On 10/14/2025 at 12:22 PM, Virgil said:

Looking back at all the offseason moves to support this team the past three years is a lot more eye opening than I expected.  I went and bolded all the players who are contributing this season in a meaningful way, it's a scary sight.  On draft classes alone, you could argue Beane should be fired.  3 total starters from the last three drafts.  That's horrific.  Add to that the new contact extensions that we can't get out of, and it looks to be time....

 

 

Virgil, you're usually a really strong poster, but this post is just awful.

 

Just addressing these first few line I found several misguided

 

We have four starters, not three from the last three drafts. Coleman, Bishop, Kincaid and Torrence. Hell, Hawes has started two of the last three games. And expecting starters from the first year particularly on a loaded roster this early in the season goes against history, especially with McDermott at coach. Would Hairston have started sometime this year, without the injury? Very very likely, and still possible.

 

Plus you've got several guys contributing a lot of snaps already, as platoon players or in sub-packages.

Levy had the same philosophy. It's hard to start early on a good roster.

 

You claim to have bolded the guys who've contributed in a meaningful way. Seriously? You didn't bold Coleman, Hawes, Bishop, Ray Davies or Dorian Williams, who's started five games and played 64% of snaps. You didn't bold Taron Johnson. I mean ...

 

 

23 hours ago, CincyBillsFan said:

What is frightening about the Cook extension was that it almost didn't happen - at least from my admittedly distant vantage point.  As another poster noted it's almost as if the organization thought the offense could still excel without Cook.

 

 

 

 

Or maybe that they could have found ways to handle that situation by the time Cook was gone in 2026.

 

Or maybe they thought that - and I grant this thought is way way out there - Cook might end up signing a deal that was closer to what the Bills thought was reasonable than the $15M per year Cook had publicly asked for.

Edited 13 hours ago by Thurman#1

[Thurman#1]

20 hours ago, HappyDays said:

 

It's been long enough that I can put this out there now - There was a period right before the draft where the Bills gave Cook and his agent permission to seek a trade. It wasn't a coincidence he put his house up for sale in April, he thought he was gone. No trade partner ever came through and that's the only reason he's still on the team. The Bills were ready to let him go and I can't even imagine how awful our offense would look if that had happened.

 

For whatever reason Beane just doesn't believe skill players are important. He rested his laurels on last year's offensive efficiency and seemed to think that as long as he has Allen the offense will be elite. Well, we're learning the hard way that that isn't automatically true.

 

 

Trusting you on this .... No trading partner came through. Hmmm. Wonder why that was. 

 

Couldn't have been that maybe nobody else wanted to give him $15M/year either, could it?

 

He may turn out to be worth $15M/year. But he hadn't proven it at the time. He had legitimate blocking issues and he hadn't put up a lot of snaps. Could he now put up a ton of snaps and prove that he could have been doing it from day one? That's one possibility. Or he could wear down if they use him that much, that's another. And there are many more.

 

One reason that GMs give players permission to seek out a trade is that they think this will give the player a realistic look at what his market is. And Cook didn't just play out his contract, he signed a deal with the Bills. Again, hmmmm.

 

There's more than one way to look at that.

 

 

Edited 13 hours ago by Thurman#1

[Virgil]

5 hours ago, Thurman#1 said:

 

 

Virgil, you're usually a really strong poster, but this post is just awful.

 

Just addressing these first few line I found several misguided

 

We have four starters, not three from the last three drafts. Coleman, Bishop, Kincaid and Torrence. Hell, Hawes has started two of the last three games.

 

You claim to have bolded the guys who've contributed in a meaningful way. Seriously? You didn't bold Coleman, Hawes, Bishop, Ray Davies or Dorian Williams, who's started five games and played 64% of snaps. You didn't bold Taron Johnson. I mean ...

 

For clarity, the Bold players were meant to be impactful starters that have positively contributed this season.  I'm not talking about a quarter or two of good play, like Groot or Coleman.  But players who have overall received positive graves and are seeing a healthy amount of snaps.  I'm not looking at their entire career.  

 

I would not consider Bishop or Coleman to have made an impact on this team as of yet, even as starters.  Now, is that coaching?  Maybe.  But considering they were both drafted in the second round, albeit just last year, would you say they have come anywhere close of producing to their expectations?  

 

Hawes, Davis, and Williams are not starters.  I understand that roughly a third of your roster aren't going to start and this team operates with a heavy rotation at most positions.  I'm not saying these guys are terrible either.  

 

Honestly, I struggled not putting Taron Johnson in bold, but he also hasn't had a great year as of now either. 

 

But Beane has been talking about getting impact players for years, yet his drafts have typically found anything but that over the past few years.  Have we hit a home run in the past few years?  Torrence is probably the best drafted player in that time spam, with Kincaid showing potential this year.  I don't find that to be acceptable.  

Edited 7 hours ago by Virgil

[pennstate10]

Given that Williams has started 5 of last 6 games, and led the Bills in tackles over the entire year in 24, I regard him as a starter and contributor. 

[Virgil]

1 hour ago, pennstate10 said:

Given that Williams has started 5 of last 6 games, and led the Bills in tackles over the entire year in 24, I regard him as a starter and contributor. 

Assuming Milano is gone next season, would you want Williams to start or would you want to bring in someone else?  
 

If it’s the latter, which is what I believe, then I would not put him in bold. 

[hondo in seattle]

On 10/13/2025 at 8:31 PM, Mikie2times said:

The consensus for a long time is McD is elite and Beane is elite. I called flaming horse crap awhile ago. You don’t have an MVP QB, elite HC and elite GM and not get over the hump in almost 10 years. One or more than one element to that is not as good as perceived. I would point at GM even before HC.
 

This just isn’t a championship caliber roster and it’s been going backwards for awhile now. Iteration one was far better than two. Like light years better. We are no longer getting the Beasley, Brown, Poyer or Hyde FA’s. That quality has been replaced with tier 2 acquisitions, fringe starters serving as primary players. 
 

No, Buffalo players are not getting snubbed in the Pro Bowl or Top 100, they just aren’t very good. The consistent lack of representation on these lists is just a byproduct of it.
 

The good ones you mention, like Torrence and Kincaid are first rounders at positions teams rarely even use first round picks on. So ya, we sort of had to hit there. 
 

Beane is a witch alright, it’s just in PR and sales, not talent acquisition. He has sold this entire fan base that he knows what the hell he’s doing. He even doubled down on then offseason reminding the fanbase how “dumb” it was to think we need additional WR help. Good thing we have all this C talent locked up on extension. 
 

 

 

I don't think it's ever been a consensus that Beane, McDermott, and Allen were all elite.  

But I do agree that Beane is the weak link.  It's not a new revelation.  I've been saying this for a long time.  I'm not sure how to evaluate Beane because he deserves credit for drafting Josh.  But here's a guy who hit an impressive home run once years ago with only a few base hits since.  

 

On the flip side, I think McDermott has done okay (.657) with the rosters he's been given, and the injuries the team's endured.  He may not be a great coach, but he's a good one.  

 

As for Josh, he may not be the GOAT, though at moments - even entire games - he looks like he could be.  In any case, he's by far the best player we have and deserves to be surrounded by better teammates.  Every season, he either plays with a subpar OL, or a subpar receiving corps, or both.  

 

Edited 5 hours ago by hondo in seattle