billsfan89

I don't think Tomlin is a bad coach nor has the game passed him by. I think the Steelers have just not had a viable QB since Big Ben. The Steelers 6 Super Bowls all came under two QB's Terry in the 70's and Big Ben. They aren't immune to needing a QB. They took one swing in round 1 with Pickett and that was a flop and then they tried to revive Fields with Russ as the backup vet and that wasn't that much better. Now they seem to be completely directionless at QB somehow even worse off than they were. I think the Steelers organization has been passed by a bit as they have this instance on not "tanking" which while admirable they have to realize this era of the NFL is insanely QB dependent. And while you don't have to tank to get a QB you also should have a coherent plan at QB. If you don't like this years QB draft than maybe off load some vets for picks in next years draft and if it means you have a losing season then that's fine you win 6-7 games and you developed a lot of younger guys on your roster and you have 2-3 extra picks in the top 100 to work with to make a trade up for a QB which is less costly to do it you are drafting in the top 10 instead of in the late teens. But Tomlin is still able to get his team to 9 wins despite some issues at QB so they never are in a position to land a top QB and their prudence makes them reluctant to take a swing at getting into the top picks for a QB by trading away a lot of future selections. I think Tomlin is the most modern aspect of their organization but he's also contributing to their QB issues.

Injuries are the worst part of football (any sport really) Ravens fans seem to be very upset about this as they think very highly of him. Sad to see this happen in the off-season. I always wonder are Achilles tears like this are just "freak" occurrences or is this something that was kind of just bound to happen due to wear and tear?

Hendrickson is not playing for the Bengals. He is willing to sit out the season rather than not get a new deal. They probably assured him that after he signed a one year extension in 2023 that they would "take care" of him longer term after the 2024 season. Hendrickson had a great 2024 and now he wants to get paid on the last year of his contract. He views them as being "dishonorable" and with only one year left on his contract he knows the Bengals leverage is less. The Bengals don't want to commit big money to an older pass rusher. We can at least be assured that Hendrickson is not playing for the Bengals. Honestly I am also not sure what team has the cap space and "win now" willingness to trade a good (I would say the Bengals aren't taking less than a 2nd rounder) draft pick for him either. It's a sticky situation and I could honestly see it ending with Hendrickson sitting out the year.

Championship runs get a defensive bailout on a game or two all the time. KC from 2022-2024 didn't exactly have a high flying offense once Hill got traded and they had some low scoring playoff games where the defense bailed the lackluster offense out. Now of course they had good offensive playoff performances too but I also think that it's fair to say the Bills should aim to have a defense that can at least have some capability to put in a super good game at some point beyond the wildcard round. I'm also all for gearing the team heavily towards Josh in general but teams not making moves isn't always a bad thing. It was prior to the 2011 season and a lot of Giants fans were complaining about how the team despite having some cap space hardly did anything in free agency. It was Michael Strahan who came on the pre-season shows and stated that a team not getting a lot of guys in free agency is not always a bad sign. Often times that means the team likes what they have and thinks they can continue to develop what is already on the roster. The Giants ended up winning the Super Bowl that year. So maybe the Bills simply liked what they have at WR or the draft just didn't fall right for them to land a WR. Either way the Bills should be on the lookout for a WR via the trade market.

All fair points, I think if the target is to keep 11 D-line as they usually do then having 12 does not make for that crowded a field when 2 guys are suspended for a third of the season.

The stadium looks nice, wish they did it fully covered but will definitely check it out. Gonna go to a game this season and next season to see the last of the Ralph and the first of the new stadium.

Fully agree that the Bills seem to be "good" on the D-line. If there's a rash of injuries there I can see a trade deadline deal similar to when they traded for Douglas in 2023 but I think given the depth the Bills brought in that's not likely to happen. The Bills bolstered the short term mercenary part of the defensive line by signing Bosa and Larry O. They then got their moveable "chess piece" in Hoecht whose on a 3 year deal, and they got the younger developmental players who should be rotational players via picks in rounds 2-4. In addition the Bills have backend development pieces in Carter and Solomon from the previous draft and Groot who they locked in longer term. Plus AJE and D.Jones are still there on the last year of their contracts. 2025 just seems like a very crowded field post draft and free agency even with the "PED Twins" (hilarious nickname) suspended. I suspect the Bills will if they like their rookies/2nd year players ability to contribute might move on from AJE or D.Jones before the season starts and wait for the PED Twins to come back. Or if they feel like a lot of the rookies still need time to cook and Solomon and Carter aren't ready for bigger roles they will just "figure it out" after the first 6 weeks likely assuming there's gonna be an injury or two after a third of the season is up.

It's also a lot easier to acquire a vet WR at the trade deadline cap wise if you need a boost at WR. The team has not been shy about making a mid-season acquisition. Last year with Cooper and the year before with Douglas. The offense is a pretty complete unit minus maybe needing a WR. Josh is obviously Josh, the offensive line is a top 3-4 unit in the NFL (only firmly behind the Eagles and Lions maybe one other team you could argue), the TE pairing I would say is top 10, and the RB core is top 7-10 in the league as well, and while the WR might not be an elite unit it's certainly a "decent" unit with a top end slot WR and some talent otherwise. So if the WR core does need some punch you can look at a trade happening. The Raiders (Jakobi Meyers), Browns (Jerry Jeudy), Titans (Calvin Ridley), and Colts (Pittman) are all just off the top of my head teams that 6-7 weeks into the season could be 1-5 or 2-5 and out of it and looking to trade a good WR. So it's not like the Bills are unlikely to have at least some options if a move is needed like it was in 2024.

The Bills defense is even in its lesser years still a better than average NFL defense. It has just come up short against KC (and a few other times) in the playoffs. Typically better offenses in the playoffs have given the Bills issues. What I hope the heavy defensive emphasis in free agency and the draft (mainly targeted towards the D-line and CB spots although safety had some moderate additions) is that it helps raise the defenses "ceiling" so to speak. The Bills haven't had that elite defense that's gonna take out top 10 (let alone top 5) offenses consistently. I think this year is gonna test the theory that maybe McD's defensive gameplan just doesn't work against elite teams in the playoffs. I think he has the talent on the defense to make it work.

Going to an expansion franchise is insanely hard to do as a rookie QB and David Carr also had an issue where the expansion draft rules weren't that good for the Texans which meant that getting the franchise off to a hot start like the Jags and Panthers was not gonna happen (I think the other owners basically didn't want to be too favorable for expansion teams so they defacto punished the Texans and returning Browns). I would love to have seen Derrick Carr with the Texans team that Matt Schuab had. Schuab had a lot better O-line and a good complement of weapons and a defense that improved somewhat. Carr was just given Andre Johnson and not much else.

There might be a couple others as NIL money makes it so that you have something to fall back on should you run into a serious injury. But it is only going to be a narrow range of QB prospects who are gonna have the luxury to be picky with landing spots. The guys who know if they wait a year at worst they will be a top 5 pick prospects that I think would have fit this bill in the last 10ish years Trevor Lawrence, Andrew Luck, and maybe Caleb Williams? That's about it. And of those players what maybe one of them wouldn't have liked their landing spot? It will be a situation that pops up once or twice a decade at worst.

NIL is going to make college players a little more confident in staying another year if the teams that hold the number one pick aren't appealing situations. That being said I do think there's not going to be that many prospects (and let's be honest really just QB's) that go back for an extra year to avoid a particular team drafting them. Being the number one pick at QB pays well and it's something that signals a longer term commitment a NFL team has to you that makes you at minimum a three year commitment. Whereas you go to college and you get hurt that's it. The Manning family was able to make those decisions in the 90's and 00's to stay an extra year because having a wealthy or at least well off dad who knows the league helps.

I was a "Wrong Josh" guy but it took me about 24 hours to be turned around on Josh Allen as a prospect. I bought into a lot of the pre-draft hype about accuracy issues that were not going to get fixed at the pro level because "no one fixes accuracy issues". I think a lot of posters on this board as well as Mel Kiper of all people really got me on board with selecting the prospect with the much higher ceiling who if he fixed his footwork and decision making could be an MVP (and that's exactly what happened). I think Kiper basically said that anyone saying Josh Allen has accuracy issues that couldn't be fixed was engaging in "lazy scouting" which as it turns out Kiper was completely right about. Kiper pointed out that Allen's completion percentages were not as bad as they seemed on the surface largely because he didn't have the best WR core which led to some dropped passes and poor breaks on catchable balls. Secondly Kiper mentioned the college system Josh played in was a system that emphasized throwing the ball down the field a lot and less short throws that inflate completion percentages. The other side of the coin on Josh as a prospect was that the reason he had some really off looking throws and bad throws was a result of some bad footwork habits. Josh had such a powerful raw arm that it compensated somewhat for lackluster footwork. But in the NFL Josh was going to have to fix his footwork in order to make it as a high level QB. The pro-Josh Allen camp stated that Josh was a very hard working and dedicated so that the idea that with NFL coaching and a full time level of commitment he couldn't fix those issues was flawed. Also, Josh's weaker decision making came from a combination of his insane arm leads him to thinking he can make every throw and just lack of consistent experience. So I am very glad the Bills got Josh Allen and have good scouting and coaching.

I think a team would 100% claim him. There's not many teams with 4 safeties better than him and the fact that he's a willing special teams player means that teams won't be burning a roster spot on a pure backup. He's well worth a roster spot in my opinion. Ideally the team has Bishop displace him but having a steady backup who at worst flexes into a ST role is still good injuries happen and this team could do a lot worse than having Hamlin plug in for a few games.

That's my read on Hamlin too, I think Cover 1 and some more detailed film junkies on Youtube have said similar things. That Hamlin is very fundamentally sound in knowing where to be in the system while also being a willing tackler he just lacks the speed to close like an elite safety.