Extend Cousins or ... ?

People can interpret "winning" a QB trade-up in many ways, but to me, the "gamble" has paid off for GM Beane, HC McDermott and Buffalo because Allen brought them QB stability and has at least helped turn them into a consistent contender (once he got to his 3rd year, that is - Daboll needed to develop him to what he is today). And by "consistent contender", I'm defining that as contending for the Conference Championship - Allen has taken them to at least the Divisional Round since his 3rd year with one AFC Championship Game appearance, and in all 3 of thosea appearances, he lost to Mahomes & Burrow, which are also Top 5 QB's...

...some may not agree, but I think that Buffalo's gamble to trade-up for Allen in 2018 has worked out...

Good point, and it just goes to show you and analytics isn't everything. There is something to be said about drafting a specific player to a specific coach/team that has a specific surrounding cast that can lend itself to success and that's something that's difficult to dissect by crunching the #'s...

...and that's also why some people call the NFL Draft a "crapshoot" or "playing the lottery": there just isn't too much of a rhyme or reason to why things sometimes work out and why they don't. And it also could be why the interviews and background of the players that we as fans don't have access too are so critical to the success: does this player actually want to play football for you, put in the time in the film room...lay it all out on the line on gameday to try and help the team...or are they not-coachable, too arrogant or unwilling to put in the effort? We've discussed this several times in the past, but I do think there is an intangible "it" factor that might go into even Draft evaluations that fans just can't determine, even by looking at prospect backgrounds/guides like Brugler's annual "Beast", which is the best Draft resource for any fan, IMO.

Over a large enough sample size, every NFL team is probably within the 50% success rate of having "hits" with their Draft picks, and at various times a certain team can hit above that 50% threshold for a couple years and that's when they'll have a run of success, depending on the coaching in-place to take advantage. We haven't had a couple years in a row of hitting over that 50% mark for a while (Spielman nailed the 2015 Draft, but then followed-it up in 2016 w/ a clunker and we've had ups-and-downs every since - mostly downs when he left) and hopefully Kwesi/O'Connell and now Flores (I say Flores because he has extensive player scouting in his background I feel Kwesi/O'Connell should be leaning into his knowledge while he's here) can give the Vikings a run of sustained Draft "hits" for a few years in a row to really develop the roster...