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We're -45M in dead cap year-over-year. All our young vets have been extended. Most of our roster is young and still improving. Everyone of consequence from last year is back, and we have some new defensive signings and a decent looking rookie class. Our new faces suggest more blitzing and covering one-on-one which might mean McD is finally planning on trying something new vs. Chiefs.

Mahomes is the better passer and the better overall QB. For all the power Josh has, he's not a very good deep ball thrower, and if I need to pick a player in the league to make one play, it's unquestionably Mahomes. Mahomes throws a better ball to Kincaid, and makes the right read on that incompletion to Shakir.

I think Andy would need his entire roster, GM and staff as well and even then nothing is certain. Mahomes is special and fans need to stop downplaying that.

I don't think Allen is much better as a downfield passer. He rarely hits anyone in stride, and most years he hasn't been very accurate on deep balls. Sure, Mahomes isn't throwing downfield much either, but I would say neither are very good in that area lately. Mahomes has that Brady pocket presence, where he's extremely elusive & has great awareness. Only difference is he can also scramble when he needs to. Josh is better as a legit run threat, and I think he's also better at making the best of broken plays. The biggest advantage Mahomes has is 1) Andy Reid & 2) he's great at the dink & dunk, finding the open guy who can then take a short pass into a long gain. I do think it's a bit silly how much people downplay Mahomes though. He's not putting up the numbers he used to, but despite that, he's still putting up basically the exact same passing numbers as Josh is. From a passing perspective, his "down years" are basically identical to Josh.

Nothing we say on here matters. It’s just an opinion.

It doesn't matter what you want them to do. Poyer wants to be a player and they want him to be a player... they see the value in him as a player. They're not going to overpay him as a coach and have him take practice reps as a player. And they're not going to try to circumvent the salary cap with outlandish schemes.

The bills can call Poyer a coach and let him do basically everything except potentially dress on Sunday. The distinction is irrelevant. He doesn’t need to wear a polo and whistle because he’s listed as a coach. They can pay their coaches whatever they want without any salary cap impact. I would rather a player on the PS that can potentially be better than Poyer as an insurance policy.

Ralph is turning over in his grave... Seriously, Over the Cap has them compliant at about $3.8 million under: https://overthecap.com/salary-cap-space

This is a 4 receiver offense (plus the backs); Kincaid and Shakir inside, Coleman and Palmer outside. I doubt Samuel, Shavers or Moore see much PT. The top 4 will receive 60 to 100 targets each, Cook sees 40-50 and the rest get the leftovers.

I think we've upgraded the defense and receiver room and should be better (though record may be worse). I think we're the second best team in the conference, but I have this nagging feeling that it is going to be the Ravens' year. I just think they are clearly the best team in the conference.

The role of a veteran player is different than that of a coach. That's why there's such things as team captains and leadership committees. The Bills obviously see more value in Poyer as a player than as a coach. Poyer will make $450K at the veteran minimum assuming 18 weeks. The average position coach in the NFL makes about $150K. Poyer as a player is an insurance policy... as a coach he wouldn't be practicing and therefore wouldn't be game-ready if needed.

When I go down this path of lamenting all of the unfortunate, and often concentrated among a couple position groups, injuries the Bills have had to manage into the divisional and championship rounds of the playoffs in recent years, I mostly just angrier about 13 Seconds and the opportunity squandered that year. We had young Josh Allen HISTORICALLY ON FIRE in an era when offenses still had that pandemic upper-hand of referees mostly ignoring offensive holding. To see Allen and Co (Davis) win that game in legendary fashion, and then to watch McD and his coaches actively string together an improbable chain of historic blunders, resulting in an overtime loss.......really redefined the term "Billsy" for the world to see, and has always been unconscionable for me (and many others). Despite my immense appreciation for Sean McDermott's culture of process and success, I have for two offseasons wished for McD to get fired and replaced by Ben Johnson. That dream died this year. So as always, I will be rooting for McD and his team, in Orchard Park for half the games, screaming when we're on defense and shutting the eff up when we're on offense. Go Bills May this be the blessed year it all comes together.

Better than Hamlin..

Below is a rough breakdown of the initial 53 man rosters from the last two years. It doesn't include Maxwell Hairston and Michael Hoecht who should both contribute significantly and are inarguably big talent upgrades to the roster. Bills Season Opening 53 Man Rosters 2024 2025 Mack Hollins Joshua Palmer M Valdes-Scantling Elijah Moore Tyrell Shavers Quintin Morris Jackson Hawes Von Miller Joey Bosa Casey Toohill Landon Jackson Dawuane Smoot TJ Sanders Austin Johnson Deone Walker Edefuan Ulofoshio Shaq Thompson Nicholas Morrow Baylon Spector Rasul Douglas Tre’Davious White Kaiir Elam Dorian Strong Mike Edwards Jordan Hancock Sam Martin Brad Robbins It looks to me like over the course of the season: WR: Even without the presumed improvement of Keon Coleman that the Bills WRs will be improved TE: Kincaid can only be better than last year and Hawes is an upgrade over Q. Morris D-line: Will be better than last year's, especially with Michael Hoecht returning LB: Will depend on the health of Milano and Bernard, Thompson can't be worse than Spector, et al CB: Should be better... Douglas and Elam were terrible last year. Safety: Should be better because Bishop can't be worse than Hamlin and has a good ceiling. I have high hopes for Hancock The Bills invested heavily in defense with 6 draft picks, 3 significant free agent signings, and the hiring of Senior Defensive Assistant Ryan Nielsen and Co-DL Coach Jason Rebrovich. Based solely on the roster and coaching staff (not factoring in injuries, strength of schedule and improvement of opponents) I'm certainly expecting improvement this year... especially defensively. Also with the presumed upgrade at Special Teams Coordinator (Chris Tabor over Matthew Smiley), I expect last year's 28th ranked special teams unit (Rick Gosselin Ranking) to be improved.

Probably going to be a Benford situation where Strong or Hancock end up being great DBs as later picks. However, I'm just going to hope it's Hairston, because damn do we need one of these 1st round picks to finally become a major impact player!

I think the obvious answers right now are T.J. Sanders or Deone Walker. But I'll go with a Dark Horse and say Dorian Strong. With Maxwell Hairston out at least 4 games and likely more than that before they really get him going and with Tre's general shakiness when it comes to health and play - Dorian Strong could potentially be given a Christian Benford-esque unexpected opportunity. And if he seizes that opportunity, he could end up surprising everyone like Christian did. He was a mid round prospect that could have went as high as 3rd or 4th Round that fell to the top of the 6th, in large part bc of being a very good Zone CB but not doing much man to man. That fits in perfect with what we do here. And he flashed a bit in Training Camp while being given a lot more work than expected out of the gate. They only kept him and Ingram outside of Benford and Tre on the Boundary. And with Beane's presser today, there's no guarantee that White is ready Week 1. That shows a lot of faith in Strong. And in the last Preseason game, they started Dorian Strong and he was the first CB pulled. So my guess is he would start.

Bosa when healthy is eye popping. He and a healthy Matt Milano as well as a very promising draft class are reason for me to be extremely optimistic that the defense is going to improve quite a bit.

Any Prather votes yet?

We are not a great week 1 team, and the Ravens are a hell of a matchup. Definite possibility we get smoked

The folks at Hustle Belt fell it too. https://www.hustlebelt.com/mac-football/41414/ye-olde-roundtable-predicting-the-2025-mac-football-season

I honestly think there’s a fair chance the Ravens absolutely smoke us. And even if that happens, I’m still not sure if Beane would make a trade to fix things. I really hope the defense overachieves but I’m not exactly confident at the moment.

Fingers crossed Jackson figures it out. I’m sure there are some great examples of rookie DE’s catching fire, and I hope he’s one of them. With the depth at secondary, we need him to become a stud quickly.

You could add Poyer as a coach and do both.

Agreed on Poyer being the better option in a pinch over Hamlin because he won’t look like a lost puppy out there in coverage but here’s hoping Bishop lives up to his draft status, Rapp doesn’t injure anymore teammates and Hancock surprises all and becomes our future stud, Hyde clone