billsfan89

I don't think Flores wants to be under a defensive coach and him suing the NFL makes him a bit of a distraction. I also think the team is built for Frazier and McD's defense. The defense is designed to bend not break and also wear you down with the D-line rotation. It's a smart defensive scheme for the modern NFL. It can be frustrating to watch as a fan as it can look "soft" but it is a well designed defense and I don't see them firing Frazier after having the number one defense in the league over a 13 second lapse in the playoffs. Possible but not likely.

I would like to see how free agency shakes out but I definitely think DT will be a need even if Phillips is resigned. Not a major frontline need but a rotational need and a longer term need as Star is likely done after 2022 as his contract is easy to get out of in 2023. Jones fits the bill of adding that power and toughness this team needs up the middle and he comes likely at a point in the draft that makes more sense. You are correct their draft capital isn’t heavy in the early rounds. They probably will use at least one or two of those extra late picks to move up in rounds 3-5 to nab players they like but are just out of range for.

Brown started along the Oline and played fairly well. Groot played a heavy rotation role and was productive and Boogie played a small rotation role and flashed a little. The only other impact the Bills got from the draft class was Doyle as a jumbo tackle role player. Overall it wasn’t the most short term impact draft class but it has some potential if just Brown and Groot pan out that at the worst a solid draft class.

Nabbing a good punt/kick returner definitely adds value. What is Philips draft stock? What round is he projected to go in?

In Africa (or wherever they sent those 4 Bills Super Bowl losses t-shirts) the Bills must be the best dynasty that ever lived.

I think Edumonds is a valuable part of the defense. However I think that the Bills are likely best off letting him play out his 5th year option and letting him hit free agency and drafting a replacement early. He is likely going to command a lot of money after this season. He is young and a starter for several years on a top defense. He has the skills and shown ability at a position of value in the NFL. That's going to likely command him 15+ million a season. The Bills will continually be in a cap crunch as long as they have Josh on a mega deal and talent elsewhere on the roster. The Bills will have to make decisions on who is worth keeping and letting go. And in my opinion a MLB that is very good but not great is not worth 15+ million. Now thankfully this team does not have to make that decision until next off-season so they have another year of value to extract. Now if this team can get Edumonds to a deal more in the range of 10-12 million a season then fine that's worth considering but his likely market value is just not going to be a good fit for this roster.

This reminds me of the Peyton Manning free agency showdown. I think he ended up choosing between the Broncos and Titans and went with the Broncos.

In all seriousness I do think Mongo will be a cut if he doesn't want to take a pay cut. I have loved Mongo since 2019 but he declined in 2021 and although he would make for a fantastic backup he is being paid like a starter and this team is in a bit of a cap crunch.

I would rather the team focus on keeping its own players but I do like the idea of brining some speed to the offense. This team lacks a big time play breaker. The closest this team has had to that is Mac, but he is more of a gadget player than a consistent "speed" receiving threat.

I think Kirk would be a nice acquisition back him up with a draft pick in the mid rounds for depth and longer term development. But I do wonder what Kirk's price range would be. IF the Bills cut Beasley and Mongo along with doing all the restructuring they can minus Star (as nice as saving 3 million would be restructuring him now would land the team at a much harder spot to cut him in 2023) they will land at about 36 million in cap space. That's about 25ish million to work with minus rookies and emergencies. Assuming the team resigns Phillips, Levi and either Hughes or Addison along with restricted free agents Zimmer and Bates as well as possibly one or two players on minimum deals like Neal or Ike that's probably not going to leave the team too much to work with. There likely will be maybe 6-7 million to work with but would that be enough for a player like Kirk? Or is that money spent better elsewhere like resigning Mac?

28 times is not that tragic, esp with a pocket passer as a QB and keep in mind that’s 28 times in 17 games. Josh was sacked 26 times during the regular season for reference. 28 times is about 1.7 times per game which ranks 4th best in the NFL. Made more impressive by the fact that they don’t have a QB known to avoid sacks. It ranks 4th best at 30 sacks given up which is about 1.8 per game.

Sometimes younger coaches are able to connect with players better. So maybe there is a method to the madness?

He is a young up and comer, I like the hire. He was the Assistant Oline coach in 2020 and the Oline coach in 2021. Both years the Vikings were decent along the Oline. They were pretty bad along the Oline in 2018 and 2019 so the past two seasons they have had a nice turnaround. It isn’t a “big name” but he is someone that has a decent track record and is someone young and up and coming.

Luckily he can be restructured to lower his hit or they can cut him next season when he will only be about 2.5 million dead cap. It's not the best contract although I still think he is a productive player just not worth his cap hit.

Since 2019 the Bills have drafted Ed Oliver, Knox, Singletary, Gabe Davis, Bass, Dane Jackson, Groot, and Spencer Brown. That's a lot of impact in the past three draft classes and there are still a lot of players that can develop like Boogie who flashed his rookie season, Moss who played well at times and AJ who has not had an easy transition into the NFL. I wouldn't knock the Bills drafting ability. Even on the D-line where many think this team hasn't developed players in the past few years this team has Ed Oliver and Phillips who are really good players and they got a solid rookie season out of Groot while Boogie flashed as a rookie on a crowded D-line. There are a lot of internal free agents I would let go or only resign on the cheap. But with only about 36 million in space resigning a few key players will eat up a nice chunk of that and take the Bills out of range for a large signing. For example looking at the Bills list of free agents below I am comfortable letting everyone go except H.Phillips, Mac, T.Jones (for special teams), Levi Wallace and either Hughes or Addison on a lower end deal if possible. I also want to keep Bates and Zimmer in the fold as restricted free agents and would offer Neal a one year deal and Ike a camp tryout contract. Guys like Efe, Butler, Mitch (would love to have him back but not at what it would cost), Sanders, Addison or Hughes (can't have both back), and Bredia I can live without but there are several key starters that need to be brought back or replaced. That's going to eat up a nice chunk of the limited cap space this team will have. https://www.spotrac.com/nfl/free-agents/buffalo-bills/

The Bills can free up a lot of space restructuring contracts and they have the option to cut Beasley and Mongo. If they cut those two players and restructure Josh, Diggs, Milano, Tre, Dawkins, Hyde and D.Williams they will have about 36 million in cap space and another 3 million if they want to restructure Star but that would make Star harder to cut in 2023 so pick your poison on that one. Given how the Bills restructured many contracts last off-season I will not be shocked to see them do the same this off-season. With about 36-39 million to work with the Bills will easily have enough space to resign many of their own free agents but likely not enough to go "big name" hunting in free agency either. Expect the off-season to look similar to 2021 where the team's biggest acquisition (Sanders) was a mid-level acquisition and the rest of the moves were mainly to resign the team's current talent. The draft will likely be where "upgrades" happen.

I do wonder if there is another QB like Josh that defied more modern scouting techniques will more teams return to drafting big arm QB's with strong physical profiles? The old adage was that you could more easily fix accuracy than straighten someone's arm. But quickly that was disproven by the amount of big arm QB's with accuracy issues not fixing those issues throughout their pro-careers. With Josh's success story I do wonder will there be a market correction as teams try to find the "next" Josh Allen.

CB is definitely in play for the first three rounds. Personally I think it would be foolish to go CB in round 1 in general given how good the team has developed later round picks (Levi was undrafted, T. Johnson a 4th round pick and Dane a 6th round pick also Poyer wasn't exactly a high caliber player before coming here) but it might shake out that a CB is both a need (depending on if Levi resigns and if Tre is progressing from injury) and the BPA. I hope that this team is able to resign Levi and have the luxury of going O-line or DT in round 1 and then go DB in round 2 or 3 for depth.

I think so too. Right now in addition to the starting 5 you have Mongo off the bench (if he isn’t cut for cap reasons) who is a great back up with the ability to play guard and center, Tommy Doyle who is a young player with some Potential and Ford a reclamation project. That’s not bad off the bench and that’s in addition to having an appetite to draft a player there early.

Seems more like gossip. Either way Daboll got an offer and the Bills promoted the right guy to take over for him.

There is also solid talent to work with. Mitch is a quality center, Dawkins a good LT, D.Williams a good vet, Spencer Brown an up and coming player and Bates a restricted free agent played well to end the season at guard. It isn't like you don't have a solid unit to work with either.

Very happy to hear this. It made far more sense for Dorsey to take the Bills job and be an offensive coordinator under a defensive head coach with a great QB in a system you know than it would be to be under an offensive head coach in Daboll with bad offensive talent. I wasn't too inspired by the possible OC choices, going in house with Josh's QB coach seemed like the best idea and I am glad they were able to get Dorsey to stay.

Looking on Spotrac and the Giants can get out of their cap situation pretty easily. Just by restructuring Leonard Williams, Golladay, and Adoree Jackson along with cutting Bradberry and Sterling Sheppard the Giants get to 26 million in cap space. They can also get more space by cutting Kyle Rudolph and Blake Martinez (and restructuring Logan Ryan) and have about 43 million in cap space. There is also possible savings with a Barkley trade. Overall the Giants might not do all of those restructurings but they will at the very least do 2-4 of them and make a few cuts to get into the 25ish million dollars in space and have some space to work with and sign their rookies. The Giants have decent linebackers I don't think they want Tremaine on the last year of his deal, the Bills are better off letting Edmunds play out the last year of his deal instead of getting at best a mid-round pick for him. At worst the Bills will be in position to get a comp pick if they let him walk.

Harrison Phillips blossomed this season and probably would have broken out in 2019 had he not gotten hurt (in the few games he played in 2019 he was looking like he did the back half of this season). Ed Oliver has also been a success story for defensive line development. I would also say that Jordan Phillips and Shaq Lawson were also significantly better under this regime in their limited time here so it isn't like there have been zero success stories along the D-line. Taking a look at the other D-line players who are still a work in progress and I see Groot who had a productive rookie year, Boogie who flashed his rookie year and AJ Epensa who has thus far not done much in two seasons. That's only one player who is just two years in who has done very little. I would hardly qualify that as a failure institutionally.

I think most on here were for the Bills trying to acquire Von Miller…