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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

It’s that the Bills defense sucks and It’s not because of Mahomes. It’s because of Andy Reid. Mahomes has played well but he isn’t nearly as amazing as people think he is. Most of his passes are dump offs of like 2 to 4 yards and he gets his RB/WR/TE to run for a lot of yards after the catch. Also his defense is a lot better than Buffalo’s. Mahomes also has wide open receivers compared to what Allen has to do against the Chiefs defense. Don’t believe me? Watch this video. He breaks this down very well.

It usually pops the week before the opener.

Think you’re overestimating the home crowd. the guaranteed prevailing opinion in KC is that there’s a gap between Mahomes and Allen at 2. if the situations were reversed, I think our prevailing opinion would be the same.

dude, I can think of one person among my extended English in laws who supports these violent protests. and she's a very black sheep in the family. Even she hates the IRA. She's not a total anarchist.

BTW, there's a sequel to "This is Spinal Tap" coming out soon... "Spinal Tap II" (the roman numeral 2 appears as Stonehenge stones).

Good point about Torber. Almost forgot about how terrible Smiley was so arrow is definitely up. I hope Joe Brady becomes more consistent with his creativity this year and our offense carries us to our first SB championship