Magox

Maybe Beane can mortgage the future similar to how the Eagles did Holy fudge!

I would consider slitting my wrist if that happened.

Old habits die hard. When you get used to thinking a certain way which has been validated by many GM's in this league then it gets hard to outgrow outdated habits. The league was very pass heavy and that trend is beginning to become more ground centric. 2020 NFL teams ran the ball on average of 41.9% of the time, last year in 2023 it was 43.8%. This year, 47.9% Why? Because teams like the Bills were built to try to stop the pass, going into more Nickle base schemes. How did teams react? By going with personnel to take advantage of lighter boxes. Who had the best scoring offenses in the NFL this year? The Lions, Ravens and the Bills. Philadelphia ran the ball 56.29% of the time Ravens ran the ball 53.55% The Bills ran the ball 49.26% The Lions ran the ball 46.96% What do they have in common? Philadelphia has Saquon, Ravens have Henry, The Bills have Cook and Lions have Jamyr Gibbs. And they all won their divisions this year. Success leaves clues. Yeah, paying $13M a year for Cook is a no brainer.

This Ravens offense was better than any other they've ever had, I never had fear of stopping the Ravens offense than like this year. The Eagles offense was most certainly better than last year, that running game made teams try to load up and stop the run making their passing game more efficient, same with the Ravens. Houston fell apart this year in their passing game, it's a fact that Mixon carried that offense during the middle of the season. But that's not the best way of looking at it, look at the teams that those players left. The Raiders, - Josh Jacobs was their focal point in 2023 and they were 8-9, he leaves and then their running game disappears and they go 4-13 The Titans, - Derrick Henry had a down year but was still their focal point and they went 6-11 to going to 3-14 The Giants - Saquon was their entire offense and they went from 6-11 to 3-14 Cincinnati - is the only team that ended up with the same record. That's as clear as it gets, the loss of those running backs aside from Mixon were detrimental to those teams, all because their GM's wanted to be moron bean counters who operate in the old way of thinking. And for what? $2M difference a year of what they were willing to pay. That's a symptom of what was wrong with those GM's which is why they are either no longer there or they are on the hot seat.

I think most of you are off base and the way you are viewing playmaking RB's are outdated. One thing was clear this year, the teams that continued with this outdated way of thinking on playmaking RB's and didn't retain their stars paid the price. Saquon Barkley, the Giants offered less than $12M a year and as a result paid the price. Josh Jacobs, the Raiders didn't want to pay $12M a year and all he did was end up with 1800 total yards and 16 TD's. Derrick Henry, Titans fell apart and Ravens had their best offense ever with Henry accumulating over 2100 total yards and 18 TD's. Joe Mixon, he carried that offense for much of the season, whereas the Bengals had their worst ground game in years. All this because they wanted to save a few million dollars. Just to put this into context, Gabe Davis signed a contract at $13M a year, more than any of the RB's that I just mentioned. Playmakers at any position should get paid at a premium. The pendulum swung way too much to undervaluing playmaking RB's and I believe you'll see that trend begin to go to it's medium. Cook was a playmaker for the Bills, he was explosive, made lots of plays that other RB's could not make and broke lots of long runs. He was even more impressive around the goal line and showed he has a knack for getting into the endzone. What about that short goal line run against the Chiefs? Holy! That was as spectacular of a 1 yard run I've seen in a Bills uniform, only a handful of RB's in the league could have made that play. Not to mention he's a good receiving back. His $15M a year is a starting point and it's a very reasonable one. The Bills should absolutely look to get a deal done for him and they probably will settle around the $13M a year mark which is a hell of a deal for a playmaker. I would be sick to my stomach if he ended up going to another team after this season.

The secondary is not fine, Rasul is looking older and is not a good man corner and Kair will be gone. The defense desperately needs to upgrade at CB and also could use an upgrade in safety play as well. Rapp and Bishop play a similar style of play, the other safety needs to be the deeper safety who can cover lots of ground, instinctual with some ball skills. The Eagles Chiefs game showed that good cover defenders can force teams like the Chiefs off their first read, clearly the Bills biggest problem defensively was the coverage unit

March 12th I believe is when trades can begin again as well.

I didn't think they would be available until 2026 and 2027.

If I were Beane I would make a call to the Titans and see what it would take to trade for Jeffery Simmons. He's an absolute beast, and if he were playing for a top tier team he would be considered to be one of the top 4 DT's in the league. He can rush the passer and stuff the run. He is on a 4 year $23.5M per year contract that runs through 2027, he's only 27 years old and the Titans may entertain that trade offer considering where they are. A trade for him would probably look like a 2025 1st, 2025 4th and a 2026 2nd. Pick up some decent Pass rusher through FA and draft one with one of your premium picks and a mid rounder and hope that Javon Soloman develops along with Epenesa. Having Oliver and Simmons in the middle would be huge for the defense. He's a couple years younger than Myles Garrett and will end up being a lot cheaper.

I'm obviously all for that. They can negotiate and see what he fetches. The potential is there and he could potentially fill a need that this team would like to have. His rate should be something somewhat affordable. With that said, I do think he will be around that $8M range, his qualities are attractive and I think his contract will be comparable to what Samuels received.

If the Bills don’t trade for Myles Garrett then they should look to draft two of these.

The Bills don’t need a big time feature guy at the WR spot. The Bills have solid complimentary and competent guys who as a unit under Brady’s system, with this offensive line and Josh Allen form an elite offense. The only thing this offense lacks is a WR who can win vertically with speed. They don’t need a top tier guy to fill that role.

He is a decent route runner who can win vertically. I have been a pretty big proponent of not using lots of cap resources on a WR this off season but from what I saw he is expected to get a contract somewhere around $9m a year. That is about right at the top of what they should spend on a WR this off season. DE, DT, Safety and CB are needs.

It appeared to be a lot of zone press man match schemes. Mahomes was being taken off his first read all game long. Polar opposite from what we saw from the Bills. Mahomes got the ball out a full second quicker against the Bills.

It was mainly due to the coverage. Mahomes threw the ball at an average time of 3.33 seconds against the Eagles. Against the Bills 2.29 seconds. That’s over a full second. The unsung story was that the Eagles coverage units. The defensive line capitalized and by the time he got to his second read the pocket was already collapsing

The on-the-surface hot take that people are getting from this game was that the Bills need to get more from their defensive line. That is definitely true and they should look to address that in an urgent way but the story that is getting lost in watching Mahomes get dismantled was the fact that Philadelphias coverage units were just as dominant. When Mahomes played the Bills he was hitting his first read all game long and getting the ball out on average 2.29 seconds per throw. The scheme was entirely to predictable pre snap and the personnel was woefully inadequate. Philadelphia took Mahomes off his first read all game long and by the time he got to his second read the pocket was collapsing on him and forcing sacks and errant throws. By the time the second quarter came around Mahomes was feeling pressure that sometimes wasn’t even there, he was stepping into the pocket into the rush when he didn’t even need to. The Bills have to get another quality corner to go along with Benford along with help on the line. He averaged 3.3 seconds vs Philadelphia vs. 2.29 against the Bills. The Chiefs are 6-12 when Mahomes has an average time to throw of 3.23 seconds or longer. He was getting the ball out immediately Vs the Bills and held onto it a full second longer against the Eagles. The story of this game was elite level coverage just as much as it was the Defensive line.

Of course the Bills would have fared significantly better than the Chiefs. Bills O line are better at pass and run blocking. Mahomes was uncharacteristically stepping into the rush and gave up sacks you wouldn’t expect him to make. The Bills would have kept their defense honest with the ground game. On the defensive side the Bills most likely would have gotten gashed. It probably would have been a 33-27 sort of game. The Eagles were built to beat the Chiefs.

What a performance from the Eagles!

Nick Wright must be wanting to slit his wrists right about now.

Game over!

The DB’s have shut them down.

The Bills are making lots of coaching changes that indicate a more aggressive man to man defensive philosophy shakeup and pair that up with the high profile nature of how the Chiefs are getting dismantled on offense and the fact that our defense has been horrendous against them, I am fairly certain the Bills will be looking to to expend lots of resources on defense.

No one is open and Pat is seeing ghosts

Could be. No matter what defense we trotted out against the Chiefs or Bengals for that matter, our defense was always outclassed. They need to inject fresh ideas, looks and schemes. But they don’t have the personnel to run that. They have to get another quality corner opposite side Benford, another safety that is a level above Rapp or Bishop and another quality pass rusher.

This would be music to my ears But we don’t have the personnel DB’s to run this, I’m expecting the Bills get a quality CB in FA and a draft choice this off season. And I do think they are going to have a run at it for Garrett. This should be a very attractive place for him to come and play.