Buffalo Bills: Things We Know This Week

I could hear it now as I voyaged on” mission foregather friends” to a faraway place.It was the destination planned for nearly three days. The mistake was made telling “Negative Stanley” that morning at the chiropractor, out of pure politeness, in front of his disciples, that he was welcome to join us. Why I do that to myself is a very good question. If I were a bit more of a well-rounded jerk I would audible changing the establishment of choice. 

He would be relentless on complaining about the Buffalo Bills draft results. He will be that guy who dissects every negative possibility of the Josh Allen selection from paying too much draft capital to move up for a guy that can fire a football with the power of a U.S. missile only having the accuracy of some of “Rocket Man’s” earlier missile tests.

He will make fun of the fact that the Bills passed on quarterbacks last year trading down and trading players for draft capital only to trade that draft capital a year later to move up to take a quarterback that they could have just used their own pick for last year. They could have a guy that can make the perfect “swoosh” jump shot in his driveway as opposed to the ball smashing through the living room picture window continuing through the house knocking over priceless vases and exiting the back-kitchen window knocking the hat off the neighbor Wilson’s head. Wilson will then make like a wicked witch and confiscate said ball as if it were Toto stuffed in a basket. Wow, I should pay attention to the road and shelf the “Negative Stanley” exaggerated projections.

Advent reality aberrant. Stanley was chatting with my friends and saw someone wearing a yellow number eight Sweden Rasmus Dahlin hockey jersey. Not only was he excited predicting the Sabres now had the next Bobby Orr waiting to be selected number one overall. The Sabres won the draft lottery in a year they were not intentionally the worst team on the planet. It was unexpected because being last in the league resulting in picking first overall is like “winning the lottery” with the changed rules since the McEichel drama. 

Stanley was blithesome. “I am almost 80 years old and I plan on enjoying a parade downtown while I still know my own name and I believe recent events in the hockey and football world give me that opportunity. Moving up to get a targeted franchise quarterback the way they did is what great teams look back on as being where it all started to come together. He is getting bad press because he has a cannon for an arm, is extremely athletic and scored the highest on the intelligence test because there have been “busts” in the past with all those attributes or the fact that a couple superstar quarterbacks do not have strong arms or were not athletic? That makes no sense predicting he is a bust. 

That is just some gurus preparing to say they predicted he would not equate to a franchise NFL quarterback. I would choose the smart, athletic quarterback with a cannon for an arm standing at six feet five and huge hands over a 6-foot average armed average intelligence prospect based on project intangibles. Could you get the next Drew Brees or Russell Wilson? Possibly. You could also get the next Ryan Fitzpatrick wishing you had Brett Favre.  I would take Jim Kelly over Doug Flutie.  In reality, give me a young Drew Bledsoe’s college resume and for casted NFL career over the chances that you found the next great Tom Brady.

Any of the top six or even more quarterbacks taken in this draft could end up being the best of the lot and any of them could and will not make it in the NFL. I would rather have better odds choosing higher in the draft and hoping the guy who has so much talent has all the intangibles than hoping the lesser physically gifted prospect has more intangibles to overcome lacking physical attributes.  The Bills did not choose him over Baker Mayfield or Sam Darnold. They simply chose the guy they wanted over Josh Rosen and the rest. It is not like every expert doubts him because of completion percentages. 

Many experts had him far away the best of them all going number one over all. The accuracy issue if it is accuracy being the problem could be why he falls short. But it also could be because he was allowed to throw the ball anywhere he chose and making throws that are difficult or to bad route runners. The quarterback doing dink and dunks and screen passes passing his completion percentage may end up being a turnover machine with no zip on the ball. We will not know for certain for a couple of years. All I know is you need  to be in it to win it and signing guys like Fitzpatrick and Trent Edwards to contracts just because they could manage the huddle better than a disastrous JP Losman is settling for mediocrity at best. Walking away from mediocrity like Tyrod Taylor shows me they are not playing it safe to be average and maybe save their job. 

They are going for a winner and that means taking chances and not tying your money up with token contracts like signing Chris Kelsey to a huge contract to stop the talk of always letting your own players walk away. The problem was that they chose the wrong player to do that with after London Fletcher’s of the world walked away. The Bills current general manager Brandon Beane and head coach Sean McDermott may or may not build a winner. They are trying to use all their knowledge and training and if they sign Dez Bryant it is to possibly be the go-to guy for the man under center.

Predicting how “Negative Stanley” will react to moves made by the Bills or the Sabres is about as difficult as predicting which quarterbacks out of college will translate to a successful NFL quarterback.

Things We Know Bout the Buffalo Bills This Week:

• Bills General Manager Brandon Beane filled an opening in his scouting department naming Dan Morgan the Bill’s new Director of Player Personnel. Morgan entered his scouting career as an intern with the Seattle Seahawks and worked his way up through the ranks as a pro scout and was eventually promoted to Assistant Director of Pro Personnel in 2013, and then Directorof Pro Personnel in 2015. He was drafted in the first round in Carolina when Beane was employed by the Panthers.

• Bill Parcells had advice for Josh Allen: “I like to use the term, ‘ready to be a star,’” said Parcells. “Some players, they’ve been highly recruited since high school and they’ve had their outstanding college careers and they’ve been lauded as college players. Some of them are a little bit more interested in the notoriety and the commercial part of the game, as opposed to coming in and getting themselves established. And I call those players ‘ready to be a star’ instead of a football player.”

Parcells believes Allen is a football player, and he doesn’t see Allen falling into the mode of aiming for only notoriety.

Scott Bryk is a contributing writer for Full Press Coverage and covers the Buffalo Bills. Follow him on Twitter at @skotbrik1970.