Why we should be glad ‘Big Baller Beane’ defies conventional wisdom

So, let’s get real here for a moment. How many of you reading this had a mock draft with the Bills taking two edge rushers and an offensive tackle in the first three rounds of the 2021 NFL Draft? After reading literally hundreds of mock drafts this past week I don’t recall reading about any such configuration.

Most of us do mock drafts for some jollies and discussion points. Then there are professional sports analysts who share their mock drafts and provide fodder for the world of sports fans to cluck about. As a retired psychotherapist, my mind observes human behavior on autopilot. That’s how dots begin to connect in my twisted brain and I identify weird correlations between seemingly unrelated events.

For example, when Josh Allen was going through the draft process, my brain almost melted from the fumes of groupthink festering on social media. Those who pretend to be the final authority on the drafting process pontificate and permeate our brains with what we are supposed to think about any given subject regarding NFL drafts. We get on social media and repeat their findings, which then reverberate through cyberverse.

Then the next person comes along, consumes this tainted point of view and gives you an ‘attaperson’. That’s it. You have now cemented your personal identity with this particular point of view.

So…. when the vast majority of pundits panned Josh Allen and predicted he would fail to thrive in the NFL, groupthink took over like a prairie fire and the rest is history. I begged and pleaded with people to just shut up and give the kid a chance. Some tarred and feathered me for my ‘homerism’ but most just passed it off as the ravings of a fossilized Bills fan.

I have to admit I find it humorous to read about Bills fans who mercilessly ravaged Josh Allen now spin their story to cover their groupthink tracks. But spin they did and continue to do, and I doubt highly many learned much from the error of their ways. The point is we need to look within ourselves and be more objective about evaluating the veracity of the assumptions we make.

Which is why I don’t do mock drafts. This is a totally meaningless observation, but it seems like stereotypical “left-brained” thinkers LOVE mock drafts. Ha, get out those spreadsheets and watch what happens. I find these exercises to be fascinating… and most of all when mock drafters opine about why a certain player belongs in a certain category.

Predictably, every year our socks are blown off by the reality that professional general managers in the NFL don’t necessarily think in a linear fashion. This is what I love most about Beane.

Photo from imgur.com.

The hell with the picture of Roger Goodell in the Rams’ draft house. If teams were wise, they would put a picture of our ‘Big Baller Beane’ up there and pray they could wheel and deal like our wonderful wizard GM in Orchard Park.

If the Josh Allen debacle didn’t right the ship of common sense, I’m not optimistic we can break this tendency of letting groupthink do the work for us. It takes courage to be different, to challenge the “experts” and question the veracity of some of their assumptions.

The mock draft season really drove that point home for me. It’s a great example about how people will craft their opinions based on the acceptance or rejection of any given point of view. That’s why I LOVE reading mock drafts that are considered “unconventional”. People who think “out of the box” often criticized, so those who do so with mock drafts get much respect from this old Bills fan.

The true lesson of the Josh Allen Story is exactly as he said it in the NFL commercial regarding Trey Lance: IGNORE THEM. Ignore the people who judge you and think they can determine your fate with their words. The same holds true with mock drafts. When you stop thinking for yourself and become a slave to the opinion of others, all hope is lost. The fact remains that after watching Beane drafts for the last few years, we should be glad to have a general manager who has the stones to ignore the chirping.

~The Caboose~

Find me on Twitter @RobynMundyWYO.