Thurman#1

Day 2, please. The Bills really value center, as they should.

You're really under-rating Hodgins. A starter in the sixth? That's a D in absolutely no way. Probably A- / A. Davis too. A 4th rounder who tied for 15th in TDs and ended up 33rd in yards? That's a B+ / A-. Fromm an F? Huh? He's a 5th rounder and he's still in the league. Nobody should pretend it was a good pick, but not an F either. The rest seem pretty reasonable. There certainly is a three year rule. That you don't appear to like it is far beside the point.

You know how many teams would love to have "struggled" to a 3-loss season, right?

I know. So many other GMs put together 3 loss seasons against the league's toughest schedule. It's so easy.

Worn out his welcome with you, maybe. A few others as well, I'm sure.

The 38 and 42 point games came when we didn't have Von Miller. The 20 came when we did. Unfortunately, his injury turned us back into the team without Von Miller.

Elam played 65% of snaps. He played well. His missing 35% wasn't the difference. As he's figured it out recently, he's been out there more and more. And while I think an awful lot of it was simply the team having an awful day, I totally agree with you about Von. Him not being out there was a huge blow.

Probably already been said, but ... If it's coaching, how come Reid couldn't break though in Philly? Same coach. Coaches have a part, sure, but it's everything together, but more rosters, injuries and matchups, IMO.

One day isn't regression. It's having a bad day. The whole team did, certainly including Allen.

I know this is crazy, but ... Do you think it's possible they thought they could develop him, use him as a backup who would play in case of injury and eventually, depending on how things went with the starters, possibly slide in as one? Nuts, I know.

Again, it was a 14-3 season. Sorry, dude, this is just not smart. If this: "1 year in the playoffs its a fluke 2 years in the playoffs just bad luck 3 years (Houston we have a problem)" ... were true, then Andy Reid would have been out of football more than a decade ago and if the Chiefs don't win the SB this year then they'd be getting rid of him because they have a problem, not having won an SB in three years. Just not smart. It's NEVER that easy in systems anywhere near as complicated as this one. It just isn't. And people who think it is are just not getting it. You have to look much more carefully at it than this. Context counts, and those who don't take it into account will be wrong much more often than they are right.

Yup. Multiple boring times. In the playoffs they were very good the first game despite their massive amount of injuries. In the playoffs they allowed the Bengals their average, again despite their massive amount of injuries, while the offense scored 10 points less than the Bengals defense usually allows. Both sides of the line had a bad game. A very good season in extremely difficult circumstances and then a bad game.

Heh heh.

Dude, cornerbacks aren't declining at 28, they just aren't, that's nonsense. Not from age, anyway. 30, 31, 32, yes. 28, no. 28 is the prime of the career.

Nah, we don't have a Tre White problem. There's a possibility one will develop in the next year or so. Way too early to say right now. Occasionally people recover from this injury really quickly and get back to their own selves in less than a year. Those people are outliers. It generally takes significantly more time than has passed. There are indeed some who never recover. Again, way too early to say whether he'll be one of those.

This too. And yeah, Saffold said it and he wasn't the only one. Allen said it too, as did others.

This. Thank you.

As far as the OP's question, I'd like to see them draft an interior OL in the first or second. Maybe a good center and have him play guard till Morse retires. Then hopefully another OL a bit later. It depends to me on the injury situation with Brown. If injuries caused his regression, there's less urgency. If they think his injuries aren't enough to account for his problems, they need to commit some serious resources there.

The bigger question is which team is trading Ed? Because the chances of us doing it are probably non-zero but genuinely miniscule. Ed was not good against the Bengals. But he was really good for most of the season. Most likely NOT an accident that Ed had a bad game with DaQuan out. DaQuan is an absolute keystone out there. Makes everyone around him better. Heh. I hear you, but I think if he'd been all pro before the trade things might have been different.

Glad Beane is GM and you're not.

I'm not violently against it or anything. Rehabilitation happens sometimes. But if he hasn't played since 2018 the likelihood of him being good enough is pretty remote.

It has been covered. But many still want to forget it or gloss over it. It had to have a huge effect on these guys, and IMO they didn't look like the same team against the Bengals. It doesn't forgive everything, but it probably is a lot of the reason we played so badly.

185 pounds on wiki, but 208 on ESPN. The correct figure will have a lot to do with the answer. Nothing's impossible, and he's certainly smart enough, but my guess is no.

It really doesn't, Barley. Three to four, sometimes even five years in? Draft spot matters zero. Performance is what matters. The player might want draft status to figure in, but for teams it just doesn't. "It's rare that a first round pick takes a contract out of line with their draft position"? No, it's not at all. Yeah, if he performed in line with his draft status, yeah, of course the contract will be similar. But for those that don't, the performance far far outstrips draft status in importance. There are tons of players who receive contracts out of line with draft spot. Tons. You're right that the second contract, if it's a low one, usually comes after testing the market. Many players over-estimate their value, and have to be shown it by the market, but why they take that lower contract is beside the point. They might take it kicking and screaming but finally they take it, whoever gives it to them. A quick example, remember Donte Whitner? Highish first-rounder who performed like a mid-second rounder, which is where he should have been drafted in the first place. His second contract was 3 years and $11M, and not with the Bills. Shaq's second contract, Darby's, Watkins'. Gilmore was worth a huge second, which is why he got one. Going to the Jets, did Darron Lee get a 2nd contract you'd expect for a 1st round pick? Dee Millner, Quinton Coples? Calvin Pryor? Kyle Wilson? Mark Sanchez?

Yes, "the Bills have a lot of players whose 'value' goes beyond the stat line." Thing is they also have a lot of players whose value is in the stats. The Bills went 13-3. That's a stat, and it happened because they hae a lot of good players whose value shows up. They were #1 in DVOA. Why? Because they have a lot of players who ... I could go on and on. Our stat line is terrific. Could certainly have been better, particularly in the Bengals game. Needs to get better, every year. Every team should say the same, but it's certainly true of the Bills this offseason. But the value of this team did show up in a terrific season under very very difficult circumstances, even if it did end poorly.