WhitewalkerInPhilly

Pretty much. I mean, I think there is a decent chance that the Bills get a crack at a guy. The Bears, Patriots, Commanders, Giants, Titans, Falcons, Broncos, Raiders, Seahawks and potentially Vikings all have uncertainty about QB and I expect a bunch of them will try to draft one within the first few rounds. There are almost certainly 2-3 OTs taken in the top 15. I imagine that Harrison, Nabers, Oduze and Thomas will all be gone by the time the Bills. If one of them makes it, you spring to the podium and thank your lucky stars. I would like Franklin, would probably be a good fit, but if at 28 and there is Franklin, Coleman, Adonai Mitchell, Keon Coleman, Xavier Worthy, McConkey, Devontez Walker, Polk, Pearsall and Wilson, and Bills aren't struck dead in awe with any of them I'd rather see us move back into the second round for them, or take a massively dropped DE or S and then spend some of those 5ths to get into the middle of the 2nd.

One scenario I've been noodling on is this: In this scenario Beane has a list tier prospects that he considers "top end, would be the #1 on most teams almost immediately, will likely replace Diggs as a #1 sooner than later" and another tier that is "can start at #2, is going to need 2-3 years of seasoning before I think he's going to surpass Diggs" If Tier 1 is empty by the low 20s, and there are 5-6 guys on Tier 2 I would not be upset if he trades back to top end of the 1st round (Carolina or another desperate teams wants a shot at a QB, someone like the Commanders or Titans has fallen in love with a prospect Beane is meh on) to rack up more picks and work on the D-line and S with multiple picks in the 2nd and 3rd.

I mean it better be an appreciable pay cut

Again, I feel what is worth noting that whatever cap space is freed for 2024 via a June 1 cut comes due in 2025. It's like getting a payday loan to bid on storage units, only the money gets released late and everyone already has had first pick. Maybe you get lucky, but no matter what that loan is due. Where is the betting on that? I'm about to fleece some hot take readers.

A few: McDermott is better than most you'll get around the league. Josh shouldn't have even tried for the touchdown to Shakir, instead burn the clock. Stefon Diggs is going to play out the next two years here. Depending on circumstance, Von might be worth keeping around for 2025

how DARE you!!! 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😡 😁

I don't think anything will beat my hatred for the Brady era Patriots. Just that is was so one sided, and omni-present. That we were guaranteed to try for the wild card every year Brady was there. 10/10 Right now, my hatred of the Jets and Dolphins comes before the Chiefs, not so much for my hatred of the teams themselves, but that the sports media landscape repeatedly sprints to crown them as the new kings of the division. The Dolphins put up 70 on a bad team, despite a history of December collapses and their offense having only full throttle or implosion, they should be division favorites. The Jets get Aaron Rodgers and they were awarded the division before playing four snaps. Kansas is a 6-7/10. I do not like them, but they are legitimately good but beatable.

Only we could have a problem with hiring LSU's Passing Game Coordinator and the local Division I team's offensive coordinator as a lower level staff hire. Quality Control in a football staff is the kind of position you take where you want to build you resume and round yourself out as a hire. You see defensive and offensive specialists flip flop at that level, and it's part of the process of getting yourself in the pipeline and paying dues before you get a shot. Absolutely no one should be upset that we are backfilling this after promoting staff.

I'll say that he made the mistakes that a sizable portion of this board says means that McDermott will never win a Championship. Maybe we are a bit hard on them, eh?

It's hard to argue when they've been to the AFC championship game 5 years in a row. Are they unbeatably better? No. Do I think that the Bills win the divisional round if the defense isn't battered to hell? Yes. The Chiefs have a length on us. They have a big salary cap lead over us. I don't see anything to do other than try to keep hitting on draft picks until 2026 and hope we get lucky.

He was epically mismanaged, battered behind a bad O line, replaced by an aging Rodgers and then hung out to dry for the disappointment of a season

That does bother me. With the run game so successful and Kincaid available to attack seam routes I really thought we'd see more of it. I can't even say it was a Dorsey thing, Dorsey did plenty of play action

If you want to ask the question "Is Diggs play equal relative to his play when compared to other WRs?" I'd have to say at the moment, no (at this moment 6th among WRs) so I get the frustration. However, over the next year or two the WR market is going to explode. This offseason has Mike Evans, OBJ, Boyd and Tee Higgins hitting the market. Ja'Marr Chase, Keenan Allen and Amari Cooper next year. These guys are going to get paid, and they are going to get paid shattering amounts of money. I very much like a receiving corps of Diggs, a high pick rookie, Shakir, Kincaid with Cook out of the backfield.

I pretty much agree with you. These trade proposals are so outlandish that I really can't believe there is any real chance of coming to pass. I mean, a player for player trade not only means that the Bills take a major bath on cap space they don't have, then they have to pay the other guy. I mean, I can see that it's possible that Beane is looking down the road and sees stuff that we don't, and that in 2025 the team gets what they can for him. But Diggs is entering year three of a six year contact. Even his worst year as a Bill he was still 13th in the league in receiving yards. With the cap situation as it is, I find it far and away more likely that Beane restructures the contract and starts grooming a successor with a plan to move Diggs inside like the Cardinals did with Fitzgerald. Diggs' skillset has never been elite speed or size, it's that he has above average and is a great route runner which in my mind would make him dominant if we have someone else to stick on the boundary.

I mean if his answer to the oncoming flames is to douse himself in gasoline...

Well, I have heard that Brandon Beane includes language in his contracts that means that a base salary conversion can happen without player say so. He makes this part of his standard free agent contracts. I far more see Diggs' comments being about how he has zero choice in how that goes, because he can get restructred without his permission and stay in Buffalo or he knows that if he isn't restructured then 2024 is a make it or break it year and if things don't go well he's probably on a different team in 2025. This sounds much more likely that "Secret trade deal that wrecks the Bills cap"

I am willing to bet -5000 odds that Diggs in on the roster come the season opening. I give it better than even money that he gets his contract reworked to shift guaranteed money further down his contract. You want to talk 25, 26? Maybe. I'd expect those comments are more for then.

I think that's people putting their wishes into reading his comments. Diggs statement is among the most bland statement I can imagine.

I mean, I hope he gets rid of Joe Douglas. The man has been drafting extremely well and his biggest free agent miscues have been getting Rodgers (a desperate dice roll) and getting ex-Packers to make Rodgers happy

I mean, his competition isn't particularly potent but I agree that he has a high upside. I do not mean to rag on Diggs (plenty of other people are doing it) but at this point I think Kincaid was our most consistent ball mover. Yes, he had a few drops and Josh lasered a few throws high and away but he still had the second highest catch rate on the team (80.2%, 1st was Shakir at 86.7%, Diggs was 67% and it gets worse from there). He could always be counted on to get a few yards after catch and contact. I don't see how you go into 2024 without making Kincaid the emergency release valve that Beasley was. Sure, work on getting deeper routes going, but let Kincaid take the easy profit on 1st and 2nd down. I remember keenly in the last KC drive hitting him like clockwork on early downs for 7 yards a pop and setting up short and manageable. You can do a lot playing like that. As I heard of one Australian "'Roo's are shredded mate" When Australians take note, it's probably dangerous

I do not know where this pay cut talk came from. If anything, he's more likely to get his money up front by the Bills converting his salary into a bonus to make cap space. This is the media making up insane "what if" scenarios that disregard the cap situation, asking the guy that they are speculating out how he feels about that, and then speculating on what his answer means. The snake is eating its own tail because after Sunday we start a 7 month slog to the next season and they are running out of things to talk about.

My worry on 2025 is that three no-brainer moves (in my mind) this offseason will be extensions of Dawkins, Taron Johnson and Douglas. They will probably be backloaded. That's going to start digging into 2025 already. Some of our expected big ticket departures (Von, Knox) will have good sized dead money chunks so I don't think the Bills will be heavy bidders until '26

Let me tell you something: I was in Philly for the last few years of Reid's career. "Widely ridiculed" was not the feeling on the street. There was frustration after a decade of overall high level play hadn't resulted in a championship, and gripes about Reid's time management and penchant for trying for WR screens (sound familiar to anyone?) but in general it was a bittersweet moment. I mean, maybe Philadelphia sports fans are just big softies...:P But seriously, Reid went to 4 straight conference championship games (5 total) and made the playoffs more often than not over the course of over a decade with the Eagles, went to the Chiefs and won their division all but one year. Yes, Mahomes pushed him over the finish line, but you don't get that amount of success over 25 years without being a good coach.

Agree that the team is about to get a whole lot younger on D. Maybe the vets and journeymen hold off late round rookies for a season, but our cap space in 2025 isn't an immediate money pot for profligate spending I thoroughly expect that by 2025, Milano will be a grizzled veteran as one of the longest consecutive members of the defense and that makes me feel old.

Delicious brisket. Possibly some wings this weekend. And note, I said current NFL. Name the current bellcow backs in the NFL. Derrick Henry? Joe Mixon? Saquon Barkley? Cook had 45 less rushing yards than Henry (not counting receiving) and ran for more than Mixon, Barkley and Pacheco. This is the model of the current NFL. Derrick Henry is probably this generation's epitome of a bellcow back, probably the highest standard of an every down rusher and he might be out of the league next year. The model right now for smashmouth football is the Niners. Right now I would say that Cook isn't Singletary 2.0, he's a poor man's CMC. Not as good, but that he had a year roughly in the same stratosphere are CMC is pretty darn good, and that we can work on a niche for that in our schemes.