thurst44

If he's left out of this year's list, Marcell Dareus will return next year in the top 40. Hughes could also return. There's a lot of candidates, led by Darby and Taylor. Glenn and Gilmore seem to be starting to build a rumble of respect around the league, and a standout season could propel them onto the Top 100. Of the rookies, Ragland is one of the best bets in the league to have an immediate impact.

Ha, we're probably pretty close on this, although I don't think Kyle is particularly overrated, at least not throughout the league (maybe here, but i obviously don't feel that way as i am rating him highly ). If Kyle has an off year this year, I'll be zen with their releasing him. He'll be 33/34 and his salary cap number would not justify his presence. If he plays at 2012-14 levels, then I'd hope they'd extend at a reasonable rate. We let Pat Williams go at about the same time in his career and regretted it. Was actually thinking about Fred during this exchange, as I was definitely upset when they cut him, but after a few days, I could understand why. What side were you on about Pat Williams? Honest question. And I'm sorry, but I'll take my own eyes (faulty as they may be), and the opinions of players, analysts, etc., over a fan whose opinions tend to skew negative (and i'll respect that you might feel the same about someone who tends to be positive -- although you may not have any opinion since i don't really post that much). Sometimes players on bad teams will look better than they are (Evans, Byrd, Clements, etc.)...sometimes they're just good and have bad luck. He should be on this roster this year and the team will be better for it (again, my opinion), they were (even if they were not great) much better on run D before he was hurt, and that was in Rex's system. That's why I defend him, and want him on my favorite team. Coincidence, maybe, but I don't feel like my expertise is any less valid than yours.

I'm clearly in a "love fest" with the guy, that's the only reason I could possibly think a player many fans, writers, analysts, and fellow players think is one of the better players in the game might be pretty good. That's the only possible reason, because I'm blinded by my overwhelming passion for the guy...and so are they? I presented my argument, you presented yours. You think he's average, and as you said about opinions... Sacks are not the primary stat for defensive tackles. Cortez Kennedy had 4 and change per year, and is in the Hall of Fame? First six games, the Bills run defense was solid...strangely after game 6, they only held the opposing team to three digit rushing once. Kyle's not the only guy on D, but that's not the only argument I made. I did go back 4 years, I went back his whole damn career...apparently you don't "understand" this. He had two season ending injuries, and otherwise missed three games...that's in 11 seasons. If you call that "consistently injured," ok. I disagree. But it's just that I don't "understand." We can disagree, it doesn't mean I don't "understand." For the record, I own one jersey; I bought it in a rush of fandom when at the Hall of Fame for Reed's induction...the only choices were Manuel and Watkins, so I took Watkins and still feel a bit silly when I wear it b/c I'm not really a jersey sort of guy. Had a bunch of AFC Champion sweatshirts back in the day. I'm not defending Kyle b/c I'm blinded, but b/c from what I can see and verify. he has been an above average player, and many "experts" (and surely some "idiots") agree. I just don't like it when we tear down our players, especially unnecessarily when the logic seems ridiculous to me (sorry). It's not blind fandom, and it's not particularly about Kyle. If I "dream" about Kyle in 10 years, hopefully it's because he sacked Cam Newton or stopped Thomas Rawls for a loss to clinch a Super Bowl, and I'd think you should hope that too . Anyway, talk about tl:dr. I sincerely apologize for the novel. Happy Memorial Day to you as well. Yes, I don't think PFF is necessarily gospel, but it hits a point where you guys are really playing whack-a-mole to say everyone else's opinion is wrong to make the case one of our better players for over a decade is not especially good. My experience between my own eyes, stats, writers, other players opinions, is that he is above average and deserves defending. Also, saw the convo at top of page, hope you feel better.

I present stats and the opinion of experts, you say I have a "love fest" and make childish gay jokes...fine, you clearly have some sort of weird jeremiad for him, rather than appreciating what a player has done for the team you supposedly root for. Did Kyle kick down your sand fort? It's a specious argument to say that Mario & Marcel raised Kyle, b/c it helps everyone to have great players next to you. It is not particularly hilarious to stop at three years, because you said consistently injury prone. In all the seasons before the only other season he had a serious injury, he missed all of 2 games going back to 2007. If he stayed healthy for the past 3 years, considering the injury rate in the whole league, it seems a bit of a stretch to call him "consistently injury prone" You, yourself, contradict yourself by quoting his recent stats and saying he was not "ready to start"...he sure did ok. Comparing him to Spiller, Parrish, and Edwards...really?!?! You make your own argument look stupid there. The Pro Bowl may be silly, but that wasn't the only argument I made. Once there's a preponderance of evidence, I'm going to go with the facts and not on some random fan who wants to attack a player on his favorite team for whatever reason.

Actually, you can make a strong argument they WERE playing better with Kyle. It was when he went out that the run defense did drop off suddenly. In the first 6 games they were giving up 87.2 rushing yards per game, and in the ten games without Kyle, they gave up 120.7 rushing yards per game. Wow, really?! How about PFF who consistently have used actual play to label him elite? Their metrics are not the be all and end all, but I'd take them (and his fellow players who have voted him to multiple pro bowls and Top 100s) over one person's opinion. Also, can we dispense with this notion that he's been "constantly injured"? In the three years before last, he missed one whole game.

Oh, yes, the loss of Hogan and his fewer than 1000 career yards receiving is a devastating blow. Also, it is weird for them to trash the Lawson pick when they mocked them to us multiple times. And I'd bet other times he was higher more often than not. For example, in the last eight nfl.com drafts, he went 19th or sooner seven times (once as high as fourth). The only person who mocked him later, gave him to the Jets at 20. And all of them had Ragland in the first round, twice both players were gone when we picked. http://www.buffalorumblings.com/2016/4/22/11487942/espn-2016-nfl-mock-draft-shaq-lawson-buffalo-bills I can accept a C-. I'd give them a B or B+ and I tend to wear the reddest of rose-colored glasses, but the reasoning here is just dumb.

Bills are now well under the cap after Glenn's extension freed up almost 8mil, and I'm pretty sure someone upthread said that Freeney played for a pretty low contract last year.

36.5 m is significantly less than 40m over 5 years? Considering the production of either back up to that time (Stewart had one 1000 yard season and McCoy had had four of the previous five), I'd say McCoy deserved that extra less than a million per year. Martin was only a slightly better back in 2015 than McCoy was in 2014 (contract years) and had only one other 1000 yard season (opposed to Shady's three). He was closer going into his age 27 season than you think. Compare the stats. But that doesn't matter...Clyde Drexler wasn't nearly Michael Jordan, but that doesn't mean Drexler wasn't elite.

Seriously, you're lumping him in with Geno? Ok. that's twisting your words a bit . Good QBs tend to get better as they play more NFL games, so I stick by my argument that nothing says he hasn't shown POTENTIAL for being a franchise QB. Aaron Rodgers' 2008 stats aren't significantly better than Tyrod Taylor's. I'm not saying he's Aaron Rodgers, and Rodgers had higher expectations going in, but it's just one example of how franchise QBs aren't that out of the box (and AR is the most recent example I could think for a QB who was on the bench for a few years before starting).

Technically, over the last two years, the Bills are a "winning" franchise...technically. But I know what you mean, and also don't think Freeney is the best choice at this point in his career. I'd go for the value pick in Biermann. As for the rest: Vazquez is an interesting option, and wouldn't mind Danny Lansanah -- although i may be suckered by his cool Freddie-esque path to the league. They have a decent amount of cap room now (10m breathing room at least), so unless they craft Gilmore's contract to up the hit this year for relief in upcoming years, I'd love to see them bring in 3 or 4 players with either decent upside, or coming off years that could have been aberrations. That being said, I wouldn't be averse to bringing Jahri Evans in, unless he's in full Fitz-mode and is hinting retirement unless he gets a large contract.

The true "franchise qb" is pretty damn elusive and has different meanings to different people. TT had an above-average year by most metrics in his first year in the league, so I'd say he has the potential to be a franchise QB at this point, but you can look at Foles or Kaepernick or RGIII or Sam Bradford or a bevy of Dolphins QBs to see the many ways that potential can go south, so I can understand the wariness -- it's smart -- but don't see how he has zero franchise QB (edited) potential after last year, between the running success and the accuracy on long throws. Do you feel he has no chance of being better than say a Joe Flacco or an Eli Manning? If so, why not? Ha, you beat me to it.

Jonathan Stewart was just a year younger and far less accomplished when he signed 5-years for just 4 million less. Adrian Peterson was almost exactly the same age, and received 7 years and 96 million, 2 more years at about 5-6m more a year. I'd say he's somewhere between those two in talent and stature, and much closer to AP.

First off, the premise is they were "middling" when you signed them, and by that metric, he was a 26 year old coming off a bad season, and that season average was still equal to Matt Forte's career YPC -- you know, the three year older running back that many analysts are praising the Jets for signing. For the record, I know fantasy is not real football, but I took McCoy first in two leagues in 2014 and was constantly cursing his name, but I was still thrilled when the Bills got him and would have still said he was an elite back after that season whether the Bills took him or not. Also, players have off seasons without being "in decline" -- Adrian Peterson dropped way off in 2013 (worse totals than Shady in '14), was hurt most of 2014 and came back to do pretty well (and in all of these seasons he was older than McCoy is now).

Oh, come now. McCoy was hardly a "middling star." Compare his stats to Hall of Famers at comparable ages and he stacks up well. He is currently 8th on the active yards list and only two players in the top 25 -- Alfred Morris at 18 and Doug Martin at 22 -- are younger (and this is counting last year's somewhat off season). When we traded for him, he was a top 5, probably top 3, back in his prime (on average, RBs have their best season at age 27). Middling star...yeesh!

Cardale Jones and Kevon Seymour are injured? I missed that.

Your opinions aren't "reality" This team is currently 0-0 and battling four teams with a solid chance of either winning or losing that battle. 16-0 at best, that's what I'd like...but 0-16 is still possible, it's not what I want...

"Professor, without knowing precisely what the danger is, would you say it's time for our viewers to crack people's heads open and feast on the goo inside" "yes, I would Kent" As of now, he has yet to miss a game, and it's not impossible he does not miss one game. Also, if he turns out to be elite, he will likely last more than five years. Kyle is going into his eleventh season. Let's say he misses four games but gets 10 sacks on the season and double-digit sacks every year of his initial contract. If that happens, were the Bills still mistaken to draft him. I'm not saying this will happen, just that maybe you shouldn't be so definitive while citing scenarios that haven't happened yet.

We might not want to go out of our way to claim this one, but John Wayne Bobbitt.

Christine Baranski (but she sometimes also roots for Pats, which is hard to fathom) Christopher McDonald, prolific character actor who played the TV host in Requiem For A Dream, and was also the star of a bunch of Midnight Run sequels which apparently happened. Christopher McDonald ‏@Yesitschrismcd BILLS PLEASE KILL Eagles ! In pats country now with Bills fans ! Life is good! McCoy is da Man! Doing the "Wipe Out Drum Solo" #BuffaloBills

For the three games, I'm gonna guess The Comeback, 51-3 (first game I ever went to), and the no-punt game.

I agree this is the plan, but another one we don't seem to touch on is there's (at least probably) an art to what they are doing with bringing in these particular street FAs. Hankerson, Salas, Boykin, and Little all have had flashes -- particularly Hankerson -- and have shown promise. They're all almost zero risk, no drag on the salary cap choices. WRs have a habit of blossoming in 3rd, 4th, an 5th seasons. When Jimmy Smith and Keenan McCardell joined up in Jacksonville, they each had four seasons and between them about 1000 yards. Chances are at most one of them makes the active roster (Salas), but I like the strategy, and actually love how they have have addressed the WR2 position with Woods still there and Listenbee an intriguing option (speed and great ball-tracking).

Genuine question: what's the difference between rolling money over and structuring a contract so that same money is in the cap hit next year? It seems to me they are structuring the contracts the way they are (with minimal cap hit this year) for a reason, and intend to make a few late value free agent signings, as Whaley said they were going to do before it all started. Or the money is being freed to give Taylor a good faith raise. As it stands now, they should have over 40m of available cap in 2017, so while as a QB and a CB the TT/Gilmore contracts will be pretty large, they will still fit.

A Sammy catch is featured in the ad that was played during the draft, so he's probably a safe bet. I'd say Dareus if he didn't have an off year, but he still has got a shot. McCoy might have had an injury-plagued season, but his rep may get him on (and he'd still be pretty close based on the season)

Was rooting around and was surprised to see there's seven UB players on NFL rosters: Mack, Starks, Oliver, CB Josh Thomas (Dallas), DE Steven Means (Balt), P Jack Schum (NYJ), OL Kristjian Sokoli (Sea) When I was there I don't think any UB player had ever been drafted, but they were just in the process of moving to Division I.

He also had the most tackles for loss in all of college football, so that's not exactly all there is to him. In this scenario, they probably would have got Ragland with the first pick and Reed with the second, and who knows who from there on in. I would have been happy either way (and this would have meant more ridicule for the Cowboys, and I'm always game for that), but this was not the path that was taken. Bills still had one of the best drafts in all of football.