After an offseason of questionable personnel moves, it would be reasonable to conclude that the Bills are worse off than they were a year ago at this time. Stephon Gilmore, Marquise Goodwin and Zach Brown signed elsewhere; recent high-round picks Sammy Watkins and Reggie Ragland were traded, and with the season opener less than a week away, the team's top two quarterbacks -- Tyrod Taylor and T.J. Yates -- are in the league's concussion protocol.

It's enough to make some skeptics wonder if the Bills are intentionally throwing the season, perhaps to best position themselves ahead of the 2018 NFL Draft, which is expected to be chocked full of talented passers.

And those skeptics would be wrong, according to Bills center Eric Wood.

"I think it's hard for any organization to prepare for seasons to come, but I think we still have so much left here in Buffalo talent-wise that a tank really isn't in our vocabulary," Wood said Tuesday on NFL Network's "Good Morning Football." "No one's thinking that. We're focused on going 1-0 this week. We've got the Jets at home and one of our goals is to win all of our home games. So, we're gearing up for this week and we're not too concerned about the outside chatter. Throughout my career here we've had a lot of negative chatter and we've been close the last few years, 9-7, 8-8, 7-9 so we're on the verge. We're looking to take that next step this year."

The Bills haven't made the playoffs since 1999, the same year that rookie quarterback Nathan Peterman was in kindergarten. And now the fifth-round pick out of Pittsburgh could make his debut against the Jets in five days' time. Wood is unconcerned about this too.

"He's kind of wise beyond his years," Wood said. "He gets the ball out fast. He does a lot of things better than rookies I've been around in the past. He still needs time to grow. He'll grow into a good NFL quarterback I'm sure. But he had a great preseason -- I'm excited to have Nate Peterman on our team."

Wood's comments come a day after first-year Bills coach Sean McDermott gave Peterman his full support.

"He is ready," McDermott said. "When you look at what he's done throughout the preseason. I'm confident and we're extremely confident in Nathan. I expect that he's only going to continue to get better, just like all of our young players, all of our players as a matter of fact. That's what this is about. This about development in terms of a young player."

The good news is that the Bills open up at home against the lowly Jets. The bad news is that they won't play the Jets every week.