Thurman#1

Doesn't defeat the purpose of the salary cap. It's part of the salary cap. I mean you could say that a "carpool lane" defeats the purpose of the speed limit. You can go faster. It's not fair. Don't worry about it. It's part of the system.

Through most of the season KC's offense wasn't nearly as good as they used to be. Until they absolutely needed to score. Then they did score at a very high rate. No, they aren't as good as they used to be. They were 10th. That's not middle-of-the-pack. Philly pressured them constantly, but Mahomes also just plain had a bad day. In Warner's video you see the first pass of the day and he's not under any pressure but he throws it a bit behind Kelce who can't corral it. How often does that happen?

Definitely a factor. To me it's more about Poyer and Hyde but yeah, Tre too. It's easy to forget but White was both talented and cerebral. Hell of a player in his day. But the Bills biggest weakness has been D-line and in particular the lack of a pass rush. All factors. This year was supposed to be a kind of mini-rebuild. We didn't see it till near the end, and we came a play or two away from beating them anyway. But that was real. It manifested itself in the safeties, the DL and when Rasul regressed, the CBs.

Appreciate it. Very much. I've never been very aware at all on this stuff. You're making me more hopeful.

Don't know these guys well. He's a good'n? Awright, not quite as positive, but still sounds pretty good. Nice to hear. Thanks, Bill.

This!! The comp picks would dull the sting but from all appearances he's a very valuable guy.

Right, and no other teams have made bad picks on a first and two seconds in the last seven years. Um, except all of them, really. Everyone misses. Absolutely everyone. In large numbers. Whereas not all that many teams built mostly around draft picks have put together teams as good as the Bills. Certainly Basham and Ford were just bad picks and it now looks like Elam will turn out that way as well. As Jokeman pointed out the Chiefs have as many awful picks as we do. And if you're going to argue the book isn't written on those guys, well, Skyy Moore was picked in the same draft class as Elam. Elam's crap while Moore hasn't had the book written on him? If you're going to refuse to count Anuike-Uzomah, Suamataia, Wanya Morris or Skyy Moore ...... how about Breeland Speaks, Lucas Niang, Mecole Hardman (a 2nd rounder) or Edwards-Helaire? Everybody screws up. Everybody.

Not believing Beane has the deciding vote on who to draft and when points out a problem with your thought process. He does. McDermott did indeed help bring in Beane. But it's been 100% clear who's got what power and why. Beane controls the roster. They've said it a million times, everyone has agreed and there's never been a whisper otherwise except from folks as far outside as you and I. Does McDermott tell Beane what he needs for his schemes? Yeah, and that almost certainly does affect Beane's thinking on who to draft. But there just isn't a question on whether Beane has autonomy.

Probably been pointed out already how wrong that is, but here are the specific, with their non-lineman first rounders named: 2024 CB Quinyon Mitchell, no lineman till the 3rd 2021 DeVonta Smith, no lineman till the 2nd 2020 Jalen Reagor, no lineman till their second 4th round pick 2018 No first rounder. first pick was Dallas Goedert, no lineman till the 4th 2016 Carson Wentz. Their second pick, the #79 was a lineman. Named GM in 2010, he hasn't had the buck stop with him the whole time, but he certainly has been the defacto GM since 2016. So, no. only four of the last nine years have they pick lineman. That's 44.4%. And since linemen are nine of the 22 positions (40.9%) they've gone DL about as often as you'd expect if they just picked without thinking about position at all, almost if they just took the BPA. Now, does he value and prioritize the lines? Hell, yeah. But a lot of the reason that their Dline is so good is that some of the best guys were early draft picks, guys who never got close to Buffalo. Philly has gone up and down with the win totals and that allowed them to draft much higher much more recently. 2023 #9 Jalen Carter 2022 #13 Jordan Davis Those are two of their three highest picks since 2016 when Howie gained unquestioned control (2021 #10 De Vonta Smith). Two out of the three highest picks on lineman. That's a lot of the reason their DL particularly looks so very very good. We haven't seen high picks since Josh started being a Josh. They drafted Carter, Davis and DeVonta besides way before we were sniffing the podium Our last high pick was Eddie Oliver, a lineman.

Go all in, meaning you are essentially destroying your future? No, they absolutely shouldn't. They'll be in Super Bowl contention for a decade. Giving up years would be nuts. Should they maybe pick up Garrett? It looks doable without destroying the cap. They'd have a tough time with the cap in future years. But it might easily be worth it. He's that good.

This'n.

Anyway, sorry to drag things back into the past. I can't see the Raiders letting him go or the Bills paying what it would take, myself. Love the guy. Great player. I'd love to see him here but seems a really small possibility to me. Hope you're all right and I'm wrong.

What great sack artists has this scheme neutered? I must've missed all the great players leaving and becoming so much better elsewhere. Rotation is what the NFL does these days. It's not a Buffalo thing. Chris Jones played 68% of snaps last year and 71% this year. Karlaftis 69% and 76% this year. Welcome to the NFL. This argument ended like ten years ago.

He wasn't a great fit, but there wasn't a good fit, not with that deeply flawed front office. The roster was bad. Those were the years when Trent Edwards looked good for a brief shining instant. The Derrick Dockery period. The era they fought and fought over the decision about whether to pay Jason Peters the amount the Ravens gave him three hours after they acquired him. The times they went Donte Whitner over Ngata. The days when they moved Langston Walker to LDE. The days when they felt they needed a tall receiver so they picked James Hardy at #41 while DeSean Jackson went at #49 and Calais Campbell at #50. A bad bad time, and I don't think any really good coach would have been successful, or interested in joining for that matter.

Very sorry to hear this.

Our defense allowed 21.3 PPG in the playoffs this year. 22 PPG last year. 29.0 PPG in 2022. 26.0 the year before and 21.6 in 2020. So you clearly aren't referencing McDermott. Oh, wait, you don't actually mean to "playoff opponents," right? You mean you want to throw out all good games and only count the playoff one playoff opponent who has done best against us, right? Well, statistically, throwing out all the good games and only counting the worst is totally misleading and unfair, but let's go with it, OK? In that case we should get rid of McDermott, and the Chiefs should get rid of Reid, since his defense has also allowed 28 plus points to playoff opponents. Which opponents? Um, us.

Probably not impossible. But spectacularly rare. There are a few guys who do what you're suggesting Higgins might want to do, take a major discount to go to a new team with a Super Bowl shot and a good environment. Very few, but they do exist. But almost without exception, those guys are guys on their third or fourth contract, who've banked a ton on their first few. So far, Higgins has earned, before taxes, about $8.6M. He'll get another $21M this year on the 5th year agreement, but this is again before taxes. Guys like Higgins don't do things like that. Pretty much without exception. If the Bills didn't like what they got from your Player B in that first year, think they'd sign him on an extension anyway? I don't. And I think the players are very aware that that's what Beane's job is, to do what's in the Bills best interest. IMO it's not going to happen. If we get Garrett, that'll be it for big names.

DE. Specifically Garrett. Without a doubt. We scored enough all year and even against KC. And we could probably have scored more if Kincaid just makes that catch, which he does nine times out of ten. What we don't have is a pass rush that hurries Mahomes. That's always been what we didn't have, except maybe for Von before the injury.

This is my guess, unless we draft and develop one. In any case, game-planning the offense for a team with a #1 is easier, not harder. I'm not sure the 2023 Diggs is a true #1, and I think it's very arguable that Cooper never was. Still, OP has an interesting observation there. Worth mentioning, I think. Cooper has spent much of his career as a top 20 WR, but "true #1" is questionable. I think they're going to bring in a WR, maybe someone on the general level of an Emmanuel Sanders or a John Brown. And maybe draft someone in the top two or three rounds as well. Yup, this also seems very reasonable to me.

I'm kind of surprised they gave it to him. But I absolutely think he deserved it. Terrific season. Lamar had one too, but Josh's was better.

He doesn't need any of them. They came within a dropped pass of the Super Bowl and the offense was really productive this year. Who would fit best when they try to improve? A route-runner, smooth, with good top speed, IMO. A Diggs type without the neediness, I think.

Not really clear what he means by this. That figure isn't the Bills PPG. Or even the Bills franchise PPG over the last five years. It's the Bills PPG with all of their wins removed, in the last five years. What's it being compared to? One game PPGs? Total franchise PPGs? Total franchise PPGs in the last five years? Total franchise PPGs in the last five years with all wins not included? In any case, not too surprising that looking only at losses produces a bad-looking stat.

Glas to hear you haven't given up on him. And IMO Rashee Rice is pretty similar so far. A VG first year then a major drop back, with Rice due to injury. Their total productions are about the same. Anyway, I added this to my first reply to you above, but it's moving so fast you didn't see it. Definitely a drop backwards. But why? Some kind of injury? Disagreement with the OC? Needed more of a blocker at TE? Later in the route progressions and Josh threw to earlier alternatives? Lost the ability to get open? It's just not clear. But maybe getting clearer after that Katherine Fitzgerald tweet "Dawson Knox said that TE Dalton Kincaid was playing on a torn PCL in one knee and with an aggravated other knee -- "It's insane what he's played through." You can find the tweet in this article, if you haven't seen it. https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/nfl/bills-gm-brandon-beane-weighs-in-on-te-dalton-kincaid-s-sophomore-season/ar-AA1ycXle Beane mentioned it in the PC too. Also implied he needs to build up play strength. So that would appear to be something he will likely be trying to work on also. And I just don't care about the comparisons to TEs in his draft class. There wasn't a lot of sentiment on here, or anywhere, really for drafting LaPorta or Mayer (in the first round, anyway). I care how good a TE he is. I think if he gets the knee thing squared away and has a good offseason we could be seeing him in a very different light.

Excuse me, YOU are the one who compared Allen to Kincaid. I only responded. Oh, and Kincaid was old. And from a smaller school, fairly raw. His athleticism and great hands helped him out to a great start, but he hadn't had much route-running or nuance. He was just really athletic. You certainly could be right that his rookie year is one of his best. My guess is that's not how it goes, but either one could absolutely happen. But "there is less room to grow when you come into the NFL at 24 instead of 21" makes little or no sense to me. Most growth in your first three or four years in the league occurs above the neckline. That's where people see the most improvement as things slow down for them and they know where the QB wants them to go and HT run routes at NFL level and so on. Coming in older does likely mean you will reach your older years a bit sooner. Not always, sometimes a lack of mileage can let guys last longer, but certainly it's a concern. But it really does NOT mean you've got less room to grow. And there's plenty of room for putting on a few pounds more and eating better at age 24, as much as age 21. Utah probably has pretty good facilities, but not NFL level, and not real close. Alright, not much else to say beyond, "look at the numbers. Then look at who the safeties were playing with." There simply shouldn't be much doubt.

Everybody has some trouble containing passing attacks. We had much less trouble than most teams. For many years in a row. And a very large percentage of that was Hyde and Poyer. This isn't a hidden secret of the Masons or something. Pretty much everyone knows it. If you have no idea how good they were, I'll tell you. Extremely good. Again, the numbers showed it. It's not just me, it's pretty much everyone. Rapp is actually pretty good at this point. He wasn't when he got here, but they're excellent teachers here. Hamlin is acceptable. The difference is that Poyer and Hyde were both excellent for years. Sensational athletes? No. Hyde especially was pretty good. But they were really good at being misleading, facilitating communication and working together to confuse QBs. But the Bills D this year was 20th in defensive passer rating. And for most of the year they had really good CBs until Douglas seemed to drop off. 20th. And again, with Poyer and Hyde, it was* 2022 2nd in defensive passer rating 2021, 1st, 70.1 2020, 7th 2019 4th 2019 3rd 2017 5th in 2017. Is some of that CB play? Absolutely, without question. But outside of Tre, during those years we had guys at CB like Dane Jackson, and Levi and Shareece Wright (55% of the snaps in 2017).