WhitewalkerInPhilly

Mourn what was. Mourn what could have been. And let's move on. We as fans have a much brighter future now.

Would it be crazy? Yes. Next question

Smart move, won't affect their comp picks 😝

I mean, if you are telling me that the Bills picks up Brian Thomas at 28 i would be asking if Beane broke a leg sprinting to the podium.

Wouldn't hate him at 28, would be stoked if Beane moves back into the mid 30s and gets him and a high third

I'll be honest, at the end last season when I started pouring over draft profiles, Franklin was the top of my "get a vertical X receiver" list. My only issue was "I don't think he's a WR1, can command the type of gravity that Diggs did in his prime" Had the plan been "Get an outside guy to stop double coverage on Diggs" I would have been thrilled with him at 28. If Beane has a plan to get a #1 I am all onboard. But I worry about him carrying the load. Peter Schrager gave him an endorsement the other night, and an insider shared that scouts really like him.

I am honestly thinking Brian Thomas is the right pick at the right spot. There are enough weapons out there (Samuel, Shakir, Kincaid, Cook) that not everything needs to flow through him immediately but looks pro ready enough to win 1 on 1 if against most #2 CB

Honestly, if there is a point where need meets position for Beane to move up for, at this point I think it's Thomas. He's got the size and speed, and the LSU pedigree for Brady. I'm not saying he's our guy come hell or high water. If someone snipes him at 15, the Bills are SOL. But if he makes it to the late teens or early 20s I think Beane does his best to work some magic. If not, seeing Mitchell comes to you. After that, sorry folks let's try Round 2.

I honestly think that the team could have gotten another good year out of him. If things don't look too rosy coming out of Houston and he wanted to come back I'd have him in a heartbeat as part of a cast. Just...on a reduced salary.

Yeah, but they'd still need to work out a contract in three weeks

Oof. Just saw his contract hit. We can't afford that without working out a new contract first.

Look, I know Bleacher Report isn't really serious, but their package for Aiyuk to the Bills is our 1st and a 5th. I just did a thing about how the Bills look like an excellent fit make a variation on what Shanahan is doing with the Niners. I would make that trade in a heartbeat.

This is probably going to sound heretical but...go light on the WRs. Hear me out: A lot of Brady's wrinkles were off of what Shanahan was running in San Fran. And ho boy, does Shanahan love his 21, 22 and 13 personnel. I mean, if I am going to look at the skill position players the Bills have right now that differentiate them (explosive or what is different from most NFL teams), this is what I come up with: James Cook (Use analogous to CMC) Curtis Samuel (a poor man's Deebo Samuel) Khalil Shakir (great hands, great separation, great YAC) Kincaid (great ability to get open, one of the more surehanded tight ends in the league) Gilliam (one of the better FBs in the league) The more I look, the more the remaining pieces look like what Shanahan has been doing. Maybe the skill pieces are not quite as good, but with Allen to make plays, I think the Bills could mow down the increasingly lighter defenses of the league. So, how would I construct the room, based on what the team has now and what I think they are likely to acquire? Curtis Samuel: starting Y receiver, can be used as moveable chess piece in slot of backfield Shakir: starting slot receiver, Y receiver on plays when Samuel is in the backfield Justin Shorter: starting X (weakside) receiver, pending a rookie fighting him for the job [Yet to be drafted high round rookie]: Competition for X receiver, ideally taking the job from Shorter [Yet to be drafted mid round rookie]/Isabella/Hollins/Thompson: fight out for depth and ST roles for 2 spots That would get the Bills 6 WR, with my ideal groupings of [high impact rookie], Samuel, Shakir, Kincaid, Cook as a base set, modified with swapping out Cook for Knox on obvious pass downs, and Kincaid for heavy run sets.

While I agree about needing another wideout, Brady does seem to be pulling from Shanahan and the man loves his multi-TE sets. The big knock I heard about the 12 and 21 personnel last year was "yeah, but it's not getting Shakir on the field" Diggs and Davis were your outside guys. Now? No Diggs and Davis. The big selling point on Curtis Samuel is that you can play him inside or outside or in the backfield on any given play. While I don't think that Kincaid is a true boundary CB he can do it in stretches. I am imagining something like this: do you remember that stupid little pop handoff in Week 18 that Miami was doing with Mostert and Achane in the backfield that was incredibly annoying until McDaniel forgot that it worked? Imagine Cook and Samuel in the backfield. Kincaid or Knox are in at TE, with Shakir overloading the strong side the slot. Presumably our freshly drafted X WR on the weakside. From that formation you can: A & B: Option handoff to whichever RB you think has the best matchup. (Cook or Samuel) C : Have Josh run it himself. D&E: play action pass to Cook or Samuel, with the other running their route F: Bootleg for Shakir and TE with Cook and Samuel as blockers G: Test their CB if our rookie WR gets a favorable 1 on 1 I am sure there are others, but that's a lot you can do with the same personnel matchups.

As best I can tell, that's accurate and is my biggest silver lining to this. I didn't want the move. I do not like the compensation. But it does put the team firmly in the black for 2025. I've talked about the window closing. I stand by that, at least for this year, but even if unpleasant I can stand by a year with lowered expectations. In the (I think reasonable) hypothetical that the Bills focus their 2nd-5th round picks this year on players who they think can be rotated in and will winnow out 2-4 starters a la Bernard in 2025 the team would have $27 M in cap space without restructuring Allen or cutting Von. They'd lose $13.4 for Groot's 5th year option, that I expect them to take, but that could be lowered with an extension. They'd have Shakir, Cook, Kincaid and presumably at least one more WR on rookie contracts, along with Samuel on a very reasonable one and the only potential loss on the O-line being Spencer Brown (who I think can be had for cheap unless he has a monster year). Most of the aging vets would be off the books by 2026 meaning that Beane would have the space to reinvest in Cook, Bernard, Shakir and Benford. (As an aside, apart from Elam that 2022 draft class is looking impressive right now) So while I am not thrilled at the move, I can see the plan.

I'll come out and say it: at the moment the WR room is worse than what is was in 2019. That's not to doom and gloom. There is still the draft. The Lions and Niners did amazing things with multi right end sets and Kincaid, Shakir and Samuel seem like ideal fits and the Bills have committed to Knox so we might as well use him.

Ooof. I mean it's the right thing to do. I'm all for a trade up but I think we need to face that the Bills leverage is not great. If the boathouse is stripped bare, we shouldn't go and get the 10th best receiver when the team can go back to the 33-38th range and get the 12th best receiver the youth movement can begin

Fine. Taking him at 28 would have been a wince and a nod for me while we had Diggs. Dude looks like a potential good WR2. I ain't putting him out as a starting #1

I would have been fine with that until Diggs was shipped off. If they get him in the third round as a double up, that's fine.

Ehh, only if you count 2025 because the team loses 3 million this year. Which, if you want to make a case for 2024 being a hard rebuild I could have swallowed it, but if that was the case Beane should not have bothered bringing in street free agents. Why gobble up more cap room if the point is to purge the old guard and draft fresh? The only thing I can imagine is Diggs did something Antonio Brown crazy that somehow was out of the news, and Beane had to ship him out for pennies on the dollar.

Yeah, I don't think I need to wait on this one to make a call. While some of the Diggs criticism was legit, the man had four consecutive 1,000+ yard seasons. That's every year we has with us. Was he on the downside of his career? Decent odds. But you cannot tell me that he didn't have some gas left in the tank and couldn't be used in 2024 and 2025. I was dumbfounded when I heard "a second round pick". I was floored when I found out it was for 2025 AND gave up a 5th and 6th this year. Beane gave up picks. To take on cap space. To see no benefit until 2025. And in doing so created a massive hole on the roster and make everyone and their mother know the Bills need a WR1 and strangling our leverage. If this move would be done, at least wait until draft day. F. F-

This aged like milk on a hot summer day

Well not it definitely has. Don't worry, I made it through the drought, I can survive a year or two of retooling. Midseason 2023 I was seriously considering a controlled demolition. I'm ok with giving Brady a year to show what he can do, trying out some young guys and then hitting the accelerator in 2025. But we better accept that.

Welp, not anymore. I would have loved him, but Beane just gutted the WR position.

I'm not a cap expert, but I am pretty sure that a $3M cap hit is the MINIMUM the Bills would be taking. To my knowledge, no trade can account for monies already paid out as part of signing bonuses or restructures.